Oxygen
by Sarah Everton
Summary: When Maggie saves a man from drowning, she starts to receive death threats from an anonymous source. But when Alex finds out, her actions to save her only put Maggie in more danger. (Sanvers)
1. Chapter 1

The loud, incessant buzzing of a phone on the nightstand made Alex Danvers crack her eyes open weakly. She was a light sleeper – she _had_ to be, in her line of work – but being called in the middle of the night usually never meant good news.

She swatted at the nightstand blindly, knocking over a water bottle on the way, to try and stop the buzzing as soon as possible. Finally finding her phone, she moved up to lean on her right elbow, answering the call without bothering to check caller ID. She knew who it was.

"Agent Danvers."

"Alex, I need you to come in. We have three aliens that need to be processed and put into holding." J'onn. Alex sighed, his words entering her brain. "Okay, give me… Give me 15 minutes."

"Make it 30. They're coming at 4. Make sure you're here by then, that's all." J'onn disconnected the call, and Alex looked at the time on her phone. 3:21.

"Everything okay?" Came the rough and thick with sleep voice from her girlfriend next to her, as Maggie turned over to lie down on her right side, a worried look on her face. Alex craned her neck to look at her and smiled weakly. "It's nothing. Just work."

"Do you have to go?"

Alex leaned forward, kissing Maggie on the cheek. "It won't take long. Go back to sleep."

"Mhmm…" Maggie grunted. "You sure?"

"Positive. I love you."

Alex heard Maggie mumble the replied 'love you too' as she grabbed her DEO uniform and headed for her bathroom. Within minutes, she emerged fully dressed, and grabbed her gun from her safe, and her keys off the table.

After that, she was on her way to work.

* * *

It had surprised Alex that she'd been called in for processing alien prisoners. It wasn't that she was above it, or arrogant enough to believe that she was better than simple low-life thugs. But it was near 4 am, and she honestly just wondered why J'onn would drag her out of bed for it.

Unless there was more to it than he'd let on.

As she rushed into the DEO, she noticed Kara, in civilian clothes, leaning over the DEO command centre table. That threw her off completely; Kara would never be called in unless there was something serious going on.

"Hey…" She greeted her sister with a nod. "What's going on?"

Kara shrugged. "J'onn called me in, I don't know what's going on. Something about alien prisoners."

"Yeah, he told me the same thing." Alex frowned.

The blonde focused on something behind her, and raised an eyebrow. "Guess we're about to find out."

Alex turned around to see J'onn coming down the stairs carrying a folder, and looking grim. "Alex. Kara."

"What's going on?" The agent stepped forward, not one for wasting time circling around the subject.

J'onn threw the folder onto the table. "A few hours ago, we finally managed to track down those alien smugglers we've been looking for. We raided their safehouse, and we got three of them."

"The others got away?" Kara asked, browsing through the folder. J'onn folded his arms and shrugged. "We don't know how many there were in the first place, but we were outnumbered. These three gave themselves up."

"They turned themselves in?" Alex narrowed her eyes. "That's suspicious."

"Exactly." J'onn nodded. "They're planning something. I want the both of you to help escort them, in case they try something."

"Yeah, of course." Kara nodded. "Where are they?"

"They should be coming in any second now." J'onn said. Alex, in the meantime, had something else on her mind. "J'onn, can I talk to you for a second?"

Kara walked away quickly, heading to the entrance of the building to intercept the prisoners, probably. As Alex turned to her boss with a raised eyebrow. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Why wasn't I in on the raid? Why wasn't Supergirl?!" Alex was pissed. "How can I be the last one to know!"

J'onn looked unfazed, but confused as to why she made a point out of it. "Raids and ops happen all the time, Alex. You're not part of all of our operations, what are you talking about?"

"I've been helping track down that smuggling gang for a week now, and you know it! Why didn't you let me help you then, instead of calling me in at half past three in the morning to make sure they get locked up safely?! How is that my job?!"

"Agent Danvers, _stand down_." J'onn didn't like to use authority when it came to Alex, but sometimes there just wasn't another way. "I still decide who I take and who I leave behind."

"I'm your second-in-command." Alex shot back. "You owe me an explanation!"

"I don't owe you anything, Alex." J'onn shook his head. "I'm still your boss."

Alex chuckled weakly, and glared at him. "You know what? Good talk."

"You're not coming in tomorrow."

"Fine." She hissed through her teeth as she walked away, met with Kara and about five DEO agents on call, carrying three rough-looking, almost biker-like aliens. They weren't causing any trouble, but they looked less than enthusiastic to be there.

"Hey, pretty girl." The larger one of the three hissed towards Alex. "You'd have made a fortune."

"Sucks to be you." Alex didn't look impressed at all, as she followed the group, heading towards the prison cells.

"What about her?" One of the other two looked at his friend, motioning to Kara. "Not the most attractive one, but at least she doesn't have two heads."

Kara – a now offended scowl plastered on her face – pushed him with a little more force than necessary. The guy flew forward, landing face first on the ground. "Keep it moving, idiots."

Alex heard the other two aliens mutter to one another, before the DEO agents pulled them apart. "No talking! Break it up!"

She was pretty sure she saw them smirking at each other, before the three of them were dropped in separate cells on other sides of the block, and locked up.

"Well, that was an anti-climax." Kara sighed. "I can't believe he pulled me out of bed for that. He knew I had to get up early for work tomorrow."

"Tell me about it." Alex tried not to think about J'onn's betrayal. "Well, guess I'm headed back home, then."

"I'll fly you." Kara said. "It's on route to the diner, I'm going to get a scone and some coffee."

Alex smiled, and wrapped an arm around her sister, pulling her out of the building.

Neither of them saw the concerned look J'onn was shooting them.

* * *

Alex usually insisted that if Kara dropped her off, she'd do it in an alley near her building, so that nobody would see her at her apartment. It wasn't so much as a concern for herself, more one for both Kara and Maggie, the people that she cared about. She didn't want the wrong people to know too much about them. The less anyone knew, the better.

So she headed up the stairs, shoving her key into her front door lock and twisting it.

She didn't expect Maggie to sit at the table, drinking a coffee and reading through one of her case files.

"Hey?" Alex asked, frowning at her appearance. "Why are you up? It's four in the morning."

"Mhm." A non-answer. Maggie looked up. "I couldn't go back to sleep."

"Not because of me, right?" Alex closed the door behind her, and walked over to her, to greet her with a kiss. The detective smiled. "Well, I mean, not _not_ because of you. But I wasn't worried. I just missed you."

Alex took a seat next to her, pouring herself a cup of coffee too. Maggie eyed her cautiously. "Rough night?"

"Tell me about it." She took big gulp of _way too bitter_ coffee – how could Maggie even drink that – and sighed. "J'onn didn't tell me about a raid on that alien smuggler safehouse."

Maggie winced. Alex had mentioned the DEO looking for the smuggler gang, and she was right on top of it. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know." Alex shrugged. "I guess he just didn't want me there. Kara wasn't in on it either."

"Well, I mean, he probably has a reason for it. And maybe, even if he doesn't… Maybe he's just looking out for you? You can't be in on every single operation the DEO has, that's madness."

"But this one was _mine_ , Mags." Alex looked down. "You know what? It doesn't even matter. I don't even want to talk about it, he told me not to come in today."

"Ouch. Anything I can do to help…?" Maggie tried.

Alex smiled weakly at the warming gesture, and shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I'm just going to go for a run."

"Right now?" Maggie frowned. "Shouldn't you get some more sleep first?"

"Nah. I'll be fine." Alex dismissed her girlfriend's concern quickly.

"At least take your gun. I know you like running through the shady parts of town."

Alex laughed. "Why don't you just come along, then?"

Maggie opened her mouth, a million protests on her mind, but settled on a nod. "Fine. Let me go change."

Alex waited patiently for Maggie to put on her running gear, and they both headed out into the night. Alex went for a run every morning, and she usually did 5 miles, but because she knew that Maggie wasn't a runner at all, she decided to take her out to the docks, where they had a nice view of the early red sky morning as they jogged through the streets.

"How… much… further...?" She heard Maggie's strained voice next to her, and turned her head to see Maggie pull out one of her headphones and look at her.

She checked her watch. "We've already done three miles, two more."

She laughed as she heard a few expletives being thrown around – in more than one language – and noticed how adorable Maggie looked when flustered. How _hot_.

"Come on, Sawyer. Don't fall asleep on me. We'll get pizza for dinner."

Maggie's eyes lit up at the promise and put her earbuds back in, and Alex swore she felt her speed up slightly. Maggie Sawyer was a sucker for pizza, that much she knew.

When the detective ran past her to get a head start, Alex laughed and let her go, wondering how long it would take to slow down again in absolute exhaustion.

But before she could open her mouth to throw out a sarcastic remark, she heard the screeching of tires behind her. A black car was speeding through the street, and swerving dangerously.

Alex was alerted immediately as he neared them way too quickly, seeing as how Maggie was oblivious to the situation around her, the music still blasting through her headphones. "Maggie?!"

The detective didn't respond, and the car was close to them, swerving into the sidewalk dangerously. Alex raced forward, but Maggie turned around just in time to react on instinct, trying to jump away from the car by diving to the ground.

Alex couldn't see, as the car sped past them, and the second she lost track of Maggie, her heart stopped.

She sighed in relief when the car drove past them, and her eyes finally settled on Maggie's form, lying on the ground. She raced towards her, checking her for injuries. "Maggie?! Are you hurt? Did he get you?!"

"I'm fine!" Maggie snapped loose, too pissed to listen to whatever Alex was saying. "What the _hell_ is that guy's problem?!"

Alex looked at the car, trying to see the license plate, but it was too far away to tell. She knew that Maggie obviously had every right to be angry at the driver, but as long as she was okay, Alex honestly didn't care about it. "You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, Alex. I'm okay." Maggie sighed, trying to calm herself down.

She was about to pat some dirt off her pants when they heard more screeching tires.

Looking up just in time to see the black car that had nearly hit Maggie swerve away from the road, trying to avoid colliding with another car.

And plunge right into the river next to them.

"Shit…" Alex heard Maggie curse next to her, as she got to her feet quickly, racing towards the scene. Alex was right behind her. "Hey, wait! What are you doing?!"

"I have to help!"

Of course. Leave it to Maggie to try and help a guy that just nearly ran her over. "Mags, no, you can't just jump in, you don't know how deep it is!"

"Call 911. Get help." The detective ignored her, tossing Alex her phone and taking off her shoes and socks. "Every second we wait is a second he's losing air."

"Mag-…" Alex tried for the last time, but without another word Maggie dove into the water near the wreck of the car.

Her first thought was that the water was _freezing cold_. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't do anything but wince, and try to swim towards the now submerged car.

The windows were open, and Maggie's heart jumped.

Instead of finding a teen, or maybe a shady looking drunk guy, she saw a neatly dressed man, sitting next to a woman in the passenger seat that had to be his wife.

With two unconscious, injured kids in the back.

Maggie tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. She was running out of air, the run before had already taken a toll on her physique. But she had to help.

As she snaked her hand through the cracked driver seat window, trying to reach for the door handle from the inside, she felt a hand on her biceps.

She turned around to see the man, eyes open and scared. She tried to motion to him that he needed to calm down. That she was a police officer. That he and his family would be okay.

He reached down between his legs and pulled a knife. For a second, Maggie sighed in relief, knowing that he was going to cut his seatbelt to liberate himself from the wreck.

She didn't expect him to plunge it into her arm.


	2. Chapter 2

Maggie cried out, trying to pull back her arm from the window, but the knife still lodged in her biceps made it impossible to fit through the small gap. She was losing air fast.

The man was still looking at her with wide eyes. He reached forward, and yanked the knife out of her arm, coloring the water around them red. Maggie felt lightheaded; she didn't have much time left, she had to act.

She managed to reach for the knife, trying to pry it out of his hands, but he pulled back to stay away from her.

In the frustration and heat of the moment, Maggie finally ended up punching the man in the face, albeit at a very awkward angle that didn't actually do a lot of damage. But the blow was enough for the man to let go for a second, which she used to lean over to the door handle and finally get the door open.

With her last seconds, she grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him upwards to the surface, where she hoped at least Alex was waiting. Another glance into the backseat made Maggie realize that the rest of the family didn't have a chance at all. They looked dead.

She tried to swim up to the surface, but she realized that she'd finally run out of oxygen. An involuntary spasm made her swallow a mouthful of water, and after that, there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

Alex's head was light with relief when she finally saw air bubbles appear into the water, but much to her surprise it wasn't Maggie appearing. Instead, the coughing man made her crawl down the ladder of the dock into the water to reach an arm out. "Swim towards me!"

The man peddled towards the dock weakly, and reached for her arm. She grabbed it, and pulled him up the ladder, gritting her teeth at the effort. When she had him lying on the ground, she checked him over, one eye still focused on the water.

"Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Alex opened his eyelids to check his pupils, and shook him gently. "Sir?"

Maggie still hadn't come up. She accelerated her injury check and when she was at least slightly satisfied that he didn't seem to be dying any time soon, she turned back to the water. "Maggie?! MAGGIE!"

Nothing.

It was at that moment, Alex started panicking. With one last backward glance towards the man, she dove into the water and started searching for her girlfriend.

Finally, she spotted a glimpse of Maggie's hair and she swam towards her, suddenly feeling herself surrounded by a cloud of dark in the water.

She didn't want to think about what that meant.

Instead, she pulled Maggie's body upwards, kicking around to get there faster. And when she finally broke the surface, she made sure that she was above the water level first.

The first look at the detective's face made Alex realize that something horribly wrong had happened during the rescue. Maggie was deathly pale, seemed unconscious, and had a look of pain plastered on her face.

As Alex grabbed her by the upper arms to pull her back to the dock, she realized why.

Because her thumb involuntarily slipped into a _hol_ ethat should _not_ have been in Maggie's arm. And the second she did so, Maggie's face distorted in agony, as she started to cough roughly.

Alex's eyes widened, as she quickly readjusted her grip and pulled Maggie to the ladder and onto the concrete of the dock.

"Maggie! Hey…" Alex was breathing heavily. She couldn't think, her head was clouded with worry. She checked Maggie's right arm and found – as she had suspected – a wound oozing blood. But _how?_

Maggie was heaving. Alex quickly turned her to the side as she watched her cough up water and spit it onto the dock. She gently ran a hand through her girlfriend's hair as she waited for her to stop.

After a few more miserable coughs, Maggie collapsed back onto the dock, breathing weakly.

"Help is coming, Maggie, don't worry." Alex had called 911 earlier, they could arrive any minute.

"H-He…" Maggie tried weakly, but another round of coughs made Alex frown. "Don't, don't try to speak. Shhh, it's okay."

" _Guy_ …" The detective insisted on trying again. Alex looked up to where the man had been lying, but found to her shock that the spot was deserted. He was nowhere to be seen.

"What the…" She whispered, before she heard sirens in the distance. _Whatever_. After nearly running Maggie over and causing her to probably scrape herself on a rock – _what other explanation was there…?_ – she was glad he was gone because she probably wouldn't be able to control herself if Maggie wasn't okay.

Alex kept pressure on the wound on Maggie's arm, seeing her girlfriend float in and out of consciousness. She barely noticed the ambulance, fire truck and police patrol car arriving.

When one of the paramedics tried to help, Alex managed to slip back into professional mode. "She has a wound on her arm, I don't know how it got there. She's lost a lot of blood, there was water in her lungs but I think she coughed it all up. I think she's lost consciousness."

"Let's get her to a hospital, okay?" The paramedic obviously tried to be as gentle with Alex as possible, but she was having none of it. "I have an MD. Just… Take care of her."

The paramedic eyed his partner, but nodded anyway as they loaded Maggie onto a stretcher. Alex didn't want to leave Maggie, but she focused on the police officer running over towards her. "Ma'am! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Alex nodded quickly. "I dove in after her, she wasn't coming up again, I don't know what happened down there, but she got hurt."

"I'll drive you to the hospital so you can be with her. Is she a close friend?"

Alex scowled for a second, wondering what their relation had to do with anything, until she realized that the officer was trying to get her to talk to him. So she settled on clearing her throat and complying. "She's my girlfriend. She's with the NCPD science division, she's a detective."

"Wait, Sawyer?!" The officer seemed shook for a second, turning his head to get a glimpse of the stretcher now inside the ambulance. "Damn… She's always had a knack for getting herself into trouble trying to do the right thing."

They were interrupted by the paramedic running out of the ambulance and towards the firefighters already coordinating the retrieval of the vehicle, telling them something. Immediately, the men started reorganizing. One of them dove into the water immediately.

"What's going on?" The officer looked unsure. Alex sighed, as she watched the frenzied working.

"There are other people in the car."

Without another sound, she walked over to the ambulance and climbed into the back, holding Maggie's hand and kissing her forehead. "You're going to be okay, babe. I promise. You're so brave."

Maggie managed a weak smile, before her eyes rolled backwards again. Alex released a breath she didn't realize she was holding, as the other paramedic climbed into the ambulance too, and they took off towards the hospital.

* * *

A stab wound.

That man, it _had to have been that man._ Maggie had saved his life.

And he had stabbed her, and then vanished.

Alex held her head in her hands as she tried to make sense of it all. Adrenalin was the only thing preventing her from bursting out in tears, she was sure of it. So she willed herself to think.

She only had two logical explanations. One – the whole thing had been a trap. Something to lure Maggie, _or Alex_ , into danger. And two – the man had just simply been spooked or scared, causing him to run away and attack instinctively.

"Agent Danvers?"

Alex looked up at the sight of the doctor standing in front of her. She got up immediately. "Is she okay?"

"She'll be fine. We've stitched up the wound and gave her a blood transfusion. She wants to see you."

She nodded, following the doctor into a maze of hallways, elevators and doors, until he finally stopped at a room. "I'll give you two some privacy, yell if you need anything."

Alex thanked the man, before knocking on the door and opening it slowly.

"Al, thank _God_." Maggie moved to sit up, but winced as she put too much pressure on her right side. Alex raced to her side immediately, helping her. "Careful…!"

"Alex." Maggie looked her in the eyes. "The other people in the car."

"I… I don't know-…" The agent shook her head weakly. "I haven't heard anything."

"There was a woman, and two kids. They looked like they weren't even fifteen yet." Maggie's voice shook, and Alex's heart nearly broke at the sound, but the detective kept going. "I… They looked dead, I couldn't help them. And then h-he grabbed the _knife_ and…"

Alex reached down to hold Maggie in her arms, making sure her head was resting on Alex's chest. She felt Maggie's sobs more than hearing them, and she rubbed her girlfriend's back, whispering quietly.

In all honesty, she didn't know what to think about the whole situation. If anybody wanted to hurt Maggie, there would have been other ways than to set up that entire drama. Though she didn't want to think about it, her mind automatically came to dozens of other scenarios that would have been more efficient.

So maybe it was just a freak thing.

"I'm _sorry_ …" She heard Maggie whisper. She looked down to see the tears slipping down her girlfriend's cheeks.

"You have _nothing_ to be sorry for. Yeah, it was reckless. But you did all you could to save the man, after he almost mowed you off the street. That's… That's incredible, Mags."

"Where is he? Is he alright?"

Alex bit the inside of her cheek, not wanting to push Maggie deeper into the self-loathing and hatred she was feeling because of her failed attempt at saving the family. So she settled on a quick nod, and an only slightly unconvincing smile. "He's alright. Just a little banged up."

Maggie nodded in response, and leaned back. "I… Can I be alone for a second?"

"Yeah, of course. Anything you need." Alex kissed Maggie's forehead gently, before reaching into her pocket and taking out Maggie's phone she'd dropped on the ground during the rescue. "Here. If you need anything, call me, okay?"

After that, Alex slipped out of the room quietly.

As soon as she was gone, Maggie broke down into a fresh set of tears. She knew for sure that the sight of the two dead kids would haunt her for the rest of her life. The helplessness, the realization that there was nothing Maggie could have done to prevent those kids from dying, made her angry. She didn't want Alex to see her like this. To see how easily something like that could get to her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of her phone. For a second, Maggie thought it was Alex. But Alex wouldn't text her immediately after leaving if she knew that Maggie had asked her for space.

So when she opened the message, her eyes widened in shock.

It was a picture of the family in the car. She recognized the man, looking nowhere near as terrified as she had seen him, giving a loving glance to his wife while his children sat in front of them, smiling into the camera.

Those _children_ …

But it was the caption that made her heart stop.

 _You could have saved them, Maggie Sawyer._

Maggie breathed heavily, looking at the number, but finding it blocked. _Of course_.

Before she could do anything else, another text appeared.

 _You get one chance to make it right. Midnight, the docks. Come alone._

Maggie scoffed. As much as she was freaked out by the texts, whoever was sending them would be an idiot to think that they could scare her that easily.

So she texted back.

 _No._

She put her phone away and leaned back, when it buzzed again. She reached for it, expecting a snide comment or a vague threat.

She didn't expect a photo of Alex, sitting in the hospital waiting room and looking terrified out of her mind. The picture must've been taken before they'd let Alex see her.

Another buzz.

Oh _god_ …

 _Come alone, or I'll make sure the next time she's there, it's to identify whatever part of you is left._


	3. Chapter 3

Though the hospital dismissed her within a few hours, it was hard to avoid Alex the second she set foot outside of the building.

Her girlfriend had already insisted that Maggie came back to hers so that Alex could take care of her, fussing and fretting. And Maggie allowed her, because she knew how scared Alex had been. If the roles would have been reversed, the detective knew she'd be a nervous wreck.

But she hadn't forgotten about the texts. Truth be told, the image of Alex had truly frightened her. Because the thought of whoever was behind it being that close to her, to be able to _hurt_ her, made her blood boil.

She knew she had to be there at midnight. The only question was how to get away without Alex noticing. She'd shot down the idea of telling Alex about the messages the second she'd seen them.

As much as she disliked secrets between the two of them, Maggie would rather keep this to herself and deal with it to right her wrongs, instead of being confronted with a disappointed Alex, and probably dragging her into whatever mess she was getting herself in.

So when Alex unlocked the door to her apartment and ushered Maggie inside, the detective clutching the sling her arm was in, she cleared her throat. "I uh… I can't stay here."

"Why not?" Alex asked, closing the door behind them and taking off her coat.

"Uh…" Maggie cursed mentally. She should have figured out a story first. "I… I just don't really feel comfortable."

She could see that Alex was torn between listening to her and pushing. But she knew how Alex's mind worked, and that the latter would win.

"I don't understand… What don't you feel comfortable with?"

Maggie felt another buzz in her pocket, and her stomach dropped. She had to check what it was without looking suspicious, but she had to deal with Alex first. "I'm just… Tired from the meds, Alex. I need to sleep it off."

"You can sleep in my bed. I don't… Understand the problem." Maggie saw that Alex was getting defensive and insecure, she probably thought that Maggie was pushing her away because she did something wrong.

So finally, Maggie realized what she had to do to finish the job.

"I need to process, Alex. Alone. It's not you, I just need time."

After a long silence, Alex nodded with a weak smile. Maggie saw the pain in her eyes, but knew she couldn't respond to it. She had to stay strong and keep up the act, though there was nothing more she'd want than to curl up into Alex and allow the agent to hold her all though the night.

Because if staying away meant keeping Alex safe from whatever lunatic was texting her, she wouldn't hesitate.

"Thanks for… You know. Taking care of me. And probably saving my life." She stated, a bit awkwardly, as she figured out how to leave without hurting Alex more than she already had.

Alex frowned at the choice of words. "You don't need to _thank_ me, Maggie… I love you."

"Right, yeah." Maggie smiled weakly. "I love you too."

"Maggie, you're acting _really_ weird… Is something else going on? Did I miss something?" Leave it to Alex to try and blame everything on herself. Maggie shook her head quickly. "It's fine, Alex. Don't worry about me."

After that, she turned around and headed out of the apartment. She couldn't bear to look at Alex's face any longer.

Because Alex knew that Maggie's job involved seeing people die occasionally. She knew that Maggie _had seen_ people die before. Children even. And Maggie coped by drinking, going out, and trying to forget all about it.

Not lying in bed and moping around. That just _wasn't_ Maggie.

She checked her watch. _9:22._

From what Alex had told her on the way back to her apartment, the patrol officer at the scene knew her name, so that meant that by now the entire precinct would know about her being wheeled off into a bus. _Damn it_.

She could hear the gossiping already.

Too wired to go back to sleep, and too tired to go to work, Maggie settled on taking the long way home through the park.

Joggers, people walking their dog, a few people doing yoga… Anyone around her could be whoever had texted her.

She shook her head quickly, trying to get the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't let herself get paranoid, not now.

With a grunt, she realized that she'd left her belt at Alex's apartment. She couldn't exactly go get it without owing Alex another long-winded explanation. So she didn't have her gun, badge or anything but her phone on her.

She pulled it out of her jeans and checked the message she'd gotten earlier.

 _I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer._

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and a creeping feeling of fear made its way into her chest.

As soon as she'd read it, another text appeared.

 _I see you._

Maggie's head shot up as she looked around, but nobody around her was looking down at their phone or staring at her.

" _Okay_ …" She whispered to herself. " _Calm down, Sawyer_ …"

He was probably just bluffing. She put her phone back into her pocket, trying not to think about it. She still had a fifteen-minute walk back to her apartment ahead of her.

"Help! Help me!"

Or maybe not.

Nearby, in the park, a young girl was staring up at a tree, crying. "Help!"

Maggie jogged towards the girl and crouched down in front of her. "Hey… What's your name, sweetie?"

"Remi…"

Maggie smiled weakly. "Hey Remi…My name is Maggie, I'm a police officer. What's going on?"

"Some boys threw Mister Snuffles into the tree!" Remi cried, pointing up. Maggie followed her finger to where she saw a stuffed animal hanging loosely between a few branches, too high for her to reach.

Maggie weighed her options. With her right arm in a sling, she couldn't climb up at all. She could try and shake the tree, but it looked far too sturdy. Maybe she could throw something at it?

Her options were all thrown out the window when she heard a _whoosh_ behind her, and the girl next to her squealed in relief. " _Supergirl!_ "

Maggie spun around to see Kara walking over to them. "What seems to be the problem?"

The detective noticed how Kara frowned at the sight of her sling, but they both focused on Remi for now. "Her stuffed animal is stuck in the tree."

"Ah, fear not!" Supergirl smiled. "I'll get him for you!"

She took off, floating a few yards above the ground, to carefully grab the stuffed bear from the tree. Remi smiled as she landed back on the ground and handed him over. "He's gorgeous!"

"Thank you, Supergirl!" Remi flung her arms around Kara's waist. "And Maggie!"

"You're welcome, Remi." The pair watched the little girl skip back towards her mother, who seemed to be looking around desperately as she'd probably lost track of her daughter. When they were reunited, the mother glanced into their direction, seeing Supergirl and smiling at her in relief.

As soon as nobody payed attention to them anymore, Kara turned to Maggie. "What _happened_ to you?!"

"It's a long story, Kara." Maggie shook her head. "I need to get home."

"Hey, is everything okay?" Kara stopped her with a raised arm, looking her in the eyes. "You look… off."

Maggie chuckled weakly. "It's nothing, Kara. I got hurt on the job." She knew that the instant Kara would see Alex, her girlfriend would tell her sister the truth. There really was no point in lying, but Maggie just didn't feel like reliving the entire story.

"Well, let me fly you home at least." Kara looked serious. "Does Alex know?"

"Yeah, she does. Like I said, it's fine. Doesn't even hurt."

She felt another buzz in her pocket. _If_ whoever was threatening her was watching them, this had to be a goldmine. She needed to either get out of there quickly, or get away from Kara before it seemed like they knew each other too wel. _Damn, how could she not have remembered!_

"Kar-… _Supergirl_ , I really need to go."

"It's no trouble, honestly. Your apartment is near CatCo anyway."

Maggie flinched at the information Kara was shouting, suddenly all too aware of how public a setting they were in.

"Fine, just… Quickly. And don't talk."

Kara's eyes widened at how agitated Maggie looked. She was looking around nervously… She looked paranoid.

"Maggie, are you being followed?"

"Just _shut up_." Maggie shook her head, looking her in the eyes.

Another buzz.

"We need to leave."

Without another thought, Kara grabbed Maggie by the waist and shot herself up into the sky, flying quickly to Maggie's apartment and landing through the window.

It took Maggie a second to recover from the flight; the velocity had hurt her arm quite a lot, and she couldn't help but wince, trying to flex it experimentally.

Kara took a step in her direction and folded her arms. "Do you wanna… _talk_ about it?"

"Alex doesn't know, okay? You can't tell her."

"Can't tell her _what_?! Maggie, I have no idea what's going on!"

Maggie sighed. "I-…"

She shut her mouth again. If she didn't want Kara involved into _whatever_ this was, she shouldn't tell her about it either. She had to do this alone.

"It's nothing. Sorry, I just got a little spooked. I had a nightmare last night about being watched and I just… remembered it at the park. It's fine."

Kara frowned, and Maggie thought for a second that she wasn't buying the story at all. Until she realized that the frown was less suspicion and more concern. "Well, get some rest, okay? And call me if you need anything."

"I will. Sorry, Kara, I didn't mean to scare you."

Kara smiled, and wrapped her arms around Maggie, trying to avoid her arm. After that, she flew back through her window and disappeared.

Maggie sighed in relief at how close the encounter had been. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket again, and took a deep breath before opening the two new messages.

 _Friends with Supergirl too? You're just full of surprises, aren't you Maggie?_

Maggie flinched. So he _had_ been watching her.

The second one was a picture of the woman and children from the car, with a description underneath.

 _Jessica Hayes (39) – accountant._

 _Charlotte Hayes (14) – competitive swimmer._

 _Parker Hayes (12) – musical prodigy._

Maggie closed her eyes, trying not to see the faces, now connected to the names.

And finally, the last picture appeared. The man she'd saved.

 _Landon Hayes (41) – looking for revenge._

It had to be him, texting.

"I _helped_ you…" Maggie whispered to herself, as she moved to type back.

 _What do you want from me? I tried to save them!_

It took a while for the number to reply.

When it did, Maggie grabbed her coat, and was out the door in seconds.

A picture of Alex, in her DEO gear, shouting out some order during an operation.

 _Alexandra Danvers (28) – Next._


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, what are you-…" Winn greeted her in surprise as he saw Maggie rushing into the DEO meaning business. His frown deepened as he saw her disheveled appearance. "Are you okay…?"

"Shut up, I need your help." Maggie panted, handing him her phone. "There's been a blocked number texting me. I need you to track it."

"O- _kay_ … " Winn apparently understood that Maggie wasn't in the mood for jokes or off-handed comments. He put her phone down and plugged it into the monitor in front of him. "Give me a minute."

Maggie backed off, setting on pacing through the command center. Winn sighed, as he got to work.

After a few seconds, Maggie looked up at the sound of her name being called. She saw J'onn coming down the stairs eyeing her cautiously and nodded politely in return. "J'onn."

"I told Alex to stay home."

"I know. And she is. She doesn't know I'm here." Maggie shook her head.

"Why _are_ you here?" J'onn crossed his arms, just as Winn cleared his throat. "I got something!"

Maggie spun around, ignoring J'onn to stand next to Winn, watching the monitor in front of him.

"It looks like the signal keeps bouncing off different coordinates to throw us off. They know what they're doing, whoever they are. I can't track it."

"So… We don't know anything." Maggie concluded, her stomach dropping. Winn winced, shaking his head. "There has to be _something_!"

"Mister Schott, what are you trying to do?"

"I'm… trying to figure out who is stalking Maggie."

J'onn frowned, looking at the two of them. "Stalking?"

Maggie shook her head, trying to wave off his concern. "It's fine. Just… A number that's been texting me. No big deal."

Winn opened his mouth to protest, having caught a glance of the texts she'd been getting, but decided against it, knowing how easy it would be for either girlfriend to hurt him with just one finger if he blabbed.

"Alex doesn't know. Neither does Kara. And they _can't_ know." Maggie looked at the two of them. "I _mean_ it."

"Your secret is safe with us, for now." J'onn sighed. "But we can't waste DEO resources on half-told stories and truths, Maggie. You're going to have to give us everything if you want us to help you. With or without Alex or Kara."

Maggie weighed her options. Either doing it alone and risking walking into a trap by herself, or having the DEO by her side but keeping it a secret from Alex – probably breaking her heart while doing so – and having back-up.

Basically, catching the guy before he could hurt anybody, or him not being able to hurt anyone but her in the first place.

She took a shaky breath, and looked up at J'onn.

"Landon Hayes. His name is Landon Hayes."

* * *

After telling the two of them the summarized version of the story, Winn got to work researching what they knew, and looking for ties of any kind while J'onn continued the conversation with Maggie.

"So you don't want to tell Alex because you're afraid she's going to be a target?"

Maggie nodded, but he didn't look satisfied. "Then what stopped you from telling Kara? A human looking for revenge wouldn't be a match for her."

"Look, the less the guy knows about my personal life, the better. That's rule number one for handling stalkers, right?" Maggie folded her arms. "I had to do it alone. But he started threatening Alex, and I couldn't sit around and wait for midnight. I'm going to go stay with her to make sure she's alright, and I'll go to the dock to meet with him. _Alone_."

Before J'onn could respond, Winn beckoned them over, swiping his feed up to the big screen in front of them. "So, the Hayes family. They were reported missing two days ago when none of them showed up for work or school. The dad, Landon Hayes, is a doctor at National City General. According to the neighbors they were a normal family, one of them actually said that they were probably just visiting friends or family in a different state."

"So, nothing?" J'onn said. Winn raised a finger. "Well… the chief medical examiner's report was uploaded a couple of minutes ago; it showed… _inconsistencies_."

"What's that supposed to mean, Winn?" Maggie wasn't in the mood for tiptoeing. She needed answers.

"It means that the injuries that the wife and children suffered before they died didn't match the ones from a car crash. None of them drowned, for starters. They were already dead before they hit the water."

" _God_ …" Maggie felt sick. So the man had been driving around with his dead family strapped into their seats? That was _so_ fucked up…

"And according to the police officer on scene, Landon Hayes wasn't found anywhere near the docks, and Alex testified that the man ran away when she was in the water pulling you out."

Maggie's eyes widened. Why hadn't Alex told her that he'd disappeared?!

That made him stalking her all the more plausible…

"The most likely scenario is that the guy had some sort of nervous or psychotic breakdown, killed his family and then tried to leave town but crashed the car." Winn turned to Maggie with a careful frown.

And Maggie finished the thought for him easily. "…And in that psychosis he actually thinks _I_ killed his family."

"Okay, enough speculating." J'onn shook his head. "You're going to stay here until we figure out what this guy wants, Maggie."

"No, I need to be with Alex. We had a fight… I _think_. I can't let her be alone now. What if he goes after her? He says he wants to!"

"I'll go get her." J'onn said. "Don't worry about her, she's going to be fine. You need to keep a level head and try and stay calm, okay? Try and help Winn get more information, anything."

Maggie didn't seem pleased at the prospect of being benched, but realized that it was the only way to stay safe right now. As much as she liked pretending she was a loner and that she didn't need anybody, she was actually becoming terrified.

A psychotic man was after her. Stalking her, and threatening the people she loved.

She _couldn't do this alone._

As she watched J'onn leave, she noticed Winn shooting her a concerned look. With a new mask of bravado, she went to work.

* * *

Alex opened the door to her apartment to see Maggie standing in the doorway. She frowned. "I thought you said you needed space…?"

"I know I did." Maggie sighed. "I'm sorry, I… I've been thinking."

Alex held the door open so that Maggie could step inside. "I'm… _terrified_ , Alex. I don't know why or how… It's… a feeling. An instinct. That something's off."

"Okay…?" Alex allowed her to continue. Maggie cleared her throat. "Someone at the precinct told me that the guy I saved ran away."

Alex winced at being caught. "I… I didn't tell you because I wanted to-…"

Maggie cut her off quickly. "… Yeah, I know. You wanted to protect me. Shield me. But I'm not some child you can tell what is real and what isn't. Alex, I need you to help me."

"Anything."

"Come to the DEO with me. I just… I want us to be safe. And together. I know that you had a disagreement with J'onn about those prisoners but _please_ …"

Alex froze, as she realized what was going on. And as her brain caught up with the situation, she suddenly became scared for Maggie's sake. "… J'onn?"

"What?" Maggie frowned. "Alex, I don't…"

"Why are you pretending to be Maggie?" Alex glared at her shape. With a deep, defeated sigh, Maggie morphed into J'onn in Hank Henshaw form, crossing his arms. "I'm sorry, Alex."

"I never told Maggie about those alien smugglers being prisoners. J'onn, what is going on? Why are you trying to get me to come to the DEO?!"

"Maggie asked me not to tell you." He said sincerely. But the statement just made Alex laugh cynically. "And so you figure posing as her would somehow make me come with you without asking questions?!"

"Alex, Maggie is in danger." J'onn looked at her seriously, causing Alex to drop her sarcastic act and go back to worrying instantly. "Someone is after her, and they're targeting the both of you."

Alex opened her mouth a few times, but she couldn't form a sentence. Finally, she managed a stumble of words. "I… don't… what…"

"We need your help. And we need you around so whoever is behind it can't try anything."

"I-… yeah, okay. But Maggie's at the DEO too? She's safe?"

"Safe, yes. For now. But she's terrified."

Alex scoffed; being terrified was an understatement. She reached for her keys and gun, and Maggie's belt that she'd left behind, and held on to J'onn as he shaped into Martian Manhunter form, and flew her to the DEO.

* * *

It was only a matter of time until the text messages would resume. And sure enough, after a few minutes of unsuccessful browsing the internet for clues on the Hayes family, another message appeared on her phone, now being sent to the monitor automatically for both her and Winn to see.

 _I see you're learning a lot about me. Don't worry. I'll save you the time._

Underneath was a link. Winn clicked it, and it redirected to a file uploaded to a secure server on the internet. A medical report from a doctor in National City, prescribing heavy antipsychotics for patient Landon Hayes for 'heavy psychosis and schizophrenia'.

"This confirms the theory." Winn stated, still reading through the details of the prescription.

Yet to Maggie, something didn't add up. "But… If he was a doctor, he wouldn't have been able to continue working if he was a schizophrenic. The second somebody saw signs that were off, he'd have been diagnosed and let go."

Winn seemed to consider her argument. "Yeah, but the date of the prescription says three days ago… Maybe it only surfaced recently?"

Maggie wasn't convinced, but decided to be lenient. "Okay, well, we can work with it. But it doesn't make sense why he would just _give_ that to us."

"Well, mainly because it doesn't tell us anything useful." Winn scratched his chin in thought. "We don't know where he is or what he's doing. It's probably just a scare tactic. 'Psychotic crazy guy stalking you' is worse than 'family man slash medical professional stalking you'."

Winn had a valid point there. And Maggie accepted it, but it didn't make her less uneasy. If anything, if it _had_ been a scare tactic, it was working.

Another buzz from her phone, another text on the screen.

 _Good! Your girlfriend finally decided to join us. You'd better tell her all about me, or I'll do it myself._

Maggie frowned at what the words meant, until footsteps behind her made her spin around in her chair so fast, the thing almost catapulted her to the ground.

Alex and J'onn, walking into the command center.

If Landon knew that Alex had arrived, it meant he had eyes on the inside. Somebody that was passing him information.

Somebody at the DEO had to be working with him.


	5. Chapter 5

She wasn't going to tell Alex.

That much she was sure.

Because the turmoil of emotions she was feeling right now would _never_ compare to Alex being kidnapped, or tortured, or _worse_ at the hand of a psycho that targeted _her._

"Hey." Alex spoke, looking around the command center, and frowning at the people standing around, shooting nervous and concerned looks her way. Instead of responding, she went straight to Maggie and put a worried hand on her cheek. "Mags, are you okay?"

Maggie nodded quickly, and flashed a weak smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm- I'm okay."

Another buzz in her pocket, and a message pinged across the screen for everybody around to read.

 _Well, it looks like she already knows. Does she know how much I'll enjoy watching you bleed out once I get to you?_

Alex's eyes widened as she turned back to Maggie, her mouth open but unable to form words. "W-What…I…"

The detective's gaze hardened, as she reached for J'onn and grabbed him by the hem of his uniform. "You _told_ her?!"

She immediately felt a pair of hands pulling her back. _Alex_. But she was too pissed to back off, as she tried to get free from her girlfriend's grasp. "Let me go! J'onn, what the fuck?!"

"I didn't tell her!" J'onn shook his head. She knew that he could have easily broken both her arms and neck to get free from her, but he apparently realized where the anger was coming from and decided to give in. "I had to tell her you were in trouble, that's all."

"No… _no_ …" Maggie shook her head. "I can't… This… Do you realize what you've _done_?! Now she's a target! Now she's in danger!'

"By the looks of it, _you_ 're the one in danger." Alex read through the message on the screen again, as she felt her stomach turn. _Watching Maggie bleed out on the floor… Crying… Writhing in pain…_

God, she hoped she'd never have to see it. The thought alone broke her.

Instead, she settled on being Agent Danvers, and took a deep breath. "What can we do?"

"I can't track the signal." Winn shook his head. "But Maggie has a rendezvous at the docks at midnight."

"Wh-… You're not actually thinking of _going_ , are you?!" Alex turned to Maggie incredulously. "Not without an army as back-up at least?!"

"I _am_ going, Alex. It's the only way to stop this. And he told me to come alone."

"It's also the only way to walk into a bullet! No. I am _not_ standing by and watching you get hurt. Whoever it is, they obviously mean business."

Winn put the picture of Landon Hayes back on the screen, and Alex frowned. "Wait, isn't that the guy that almost ran you over? The one you saved?"

"That's the guy." Winn pointed at the screen. "The guy who's stalking her."

"Why?!"

"We…" Maggie sighed. "We think he's a psychopath and he's blaming me for his family dying. But they were already dead before they hit the water."

Alex stayed silent for a second, pinching the bridge of her nose. A thousand emotions ran through her mind. _Maggie, Maggie, Maggie…_

"You're not going to that meeting."

"No, Alex. If I don't go, he's going to hurt you." Maggie shook her head decisively. "There's no way in hell I'm letting him. What if he pulls a gun on you and orders you to come with him? What if he just _shoots_ you point blank as you're walking down the street?!" The thought of something happening to Alex, _god…_ She couldn't breathe.

"Air… I- I need…" Maggie mumbled, before sprinting towards the balcony, a worried Alex running behind her.

J'onn sighed, as he turned back to the screen that still had Landon Hayes' picture up.

"Winn, whatever you do, do _not_ let them go to that rendezvous."

The tech turned around in confusion, looking at J'onn. "What…? Why not? I mean, obviously besides the fact that it's risking both their-…"

"Winn." J'onn looked him in the eyes. "…If they go to that meeting, we're in a _lot_ of trouble."

"Why-…" Winn began to ask, but then he frowned. "What do you know? What aren't you telling us?"

"Nothing you need to worry about for now, mister Schott. But they cannot go in for a confrontation."

"Yeah, okay." Winn nodded quickly. "I'll make sure they… Yeah."

"Good." J'onn said, before walking off looking serious, and very pissed off. Winn watched him go, and glanced over his shoulder to where the two women were standing on the balcony.

* * *

"Whatever happens, okay?" Alex rubbed Maggie's back. "I'm here, okay?"

"I… I _can't_ drag you into this, Alex." The detective shook her head as she felt herself getting emotional. She willed the tears down. Landon Hayes did _not_ deserve her tears.

"I know you're scared. For me, for _us_. But you can't let that fear dictate you, okay? You can't let him win."

"I _won't_." Maggie shook her head. "I'm a cop, okay? I'm used to… To dealing with this sort of stuff."

"No you're not." Alex could see right through the lies Maggie was trying to tell herself. "You're not indestructible. This is getting to you, and you can admit it."

Maggie shook her head. "Just… Just this _once_ , let me handle this."

"This isn't about handling it, Mags. This is about you being in danger. If you were in my shoes you wouldn't hesitate. Neither will I."

"Alex, _no_." She looked her girlfriend in the eyes. "I'm going to that meeting. Alone. I'm going to face him, see what he wants, and try to talk him down. And I _know_ that's not the answer you're looking for, but at least it won't involve innocent people dying."

"What's rule number one?!" Alex was getting worked up over how stubborn Maggie was being. "We _don't_ negotiate with terrorists! He's not going to play fair, he's going to _kill_ you! _God_ , why aren't you getting that!"

"I _am_ getting that!" Maggie was shouting back now. She didn't care, as long as it meant keeping Alex safe she'd pick a fight over getting her hurt any day. "But it's not changing anything! It can't!"

"Well, then, what do you want me to do?!" Alex yelled. "Stay here waiting for you to _never_ come home again?!"

It was a tough remark, and Alex regretted it immediately as she saw the wince on Maggie's face.

"Whatever." Maggie grunted, before walking off. Alex knew she had to go after her, but the step she took in her direction ended with Maggie turning around and shoving her away. The physical blow, though it didn't hurt, hit her hard as she backed away immediately. They'd _never_ been violent with one another.

Another first.

She turned around to see Winn tapping away at the keyboard of his computer furiously, trying to find anything else on this Landon guy.

She walked over to help him, knowing that she had to give Maggie more time and space. Midnight was still at least twelve hours away; plenty of time to cool off and get her girlfriend to see reason.

* * *

As Maggie walked out of the DEO, she felt another buzz in her pocket. Knowing that she was now out of reach for the DEO's server, so Winn couldn't see her messages anymore, she fished it out of her pocket.

 _Good girl. Getting Alex to back off, smart move. You remind me of my daughter._

Maggie scoffed. It was taunting. At this point, she didn't even care about his messages anymore. As long as he stayed away from Alex she was happy.

Another buzz.

 _Since you're so eager to meet, I'd like to bring our meeting forward. The docks. 30 minutes. Don't tell anybody, come alone._

Maggie swallowed thickly, looking back at the giant building behind her.

But with a deep breath, she typed back.

 _I'll be there_.


	6. Chapter 6

"Give me _something_ , Winn." Alex said, leaning over his desk in frustration. "Anything."

"It's hard… It looks like he knows what he's doing, I have no idea where he could have learned this, he's a _doctor_ …"

"Maybe he's got help?" Alex theorized out loud, before sighing. She was stumped. And she didn't like leaving Maggie alone. She knew the detective needed time, but she wasn't willing to give her plenty. But she _had_ to get something first.

"Wait." Winn spun around in his chair to face her. "He knew when you were coming in. He texted Maggie that you were 'joining us' or something."

Alex nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"So that means he has to have eyes on the inside." He looked up at her. "He has something. A bug, maybe. Could he have planted something on either of you during that rescue?"

"He _stabbed_ Maggie…" Alex shook her head. "Maybe he did something to her. He didn't touch me. And we didn't exactly talk about it."

"Hmm…" Winn frowned in thought. "He couldn't have hacked the DEO, our servers are _way_ too secure for that. So it's probably our only option."

"How could a psychopathic doctor possibly know all this stuff...?" Alex asked rhetorically. None of this made sense.

When she realized that she wasn't going to get anything out of Winn, she reached into her pocket and grabbed her phone to call Maggie.

Straight to voicemail.

She tried not to panic, but she felt her heartrate speed up at the numerous things that could mean…

 _Easy Danvers_. _Logic. Logic and reason._

Her battery was probably dead. Or maybe she just didn't want to talk to Alex. Two perfectly reasonable explanations. There.

"Can you track her phone?" Alex worried her lip between her teeth. "Just so I know she's okay."

"Sure." Winn tapped a few keys, making a map of National City appear. It zoomed in… Until it reached Maggie's destination and kept blinking.

Alex's eyes widened.

"Why is she at the docks?!"

"Maybe she's just walking home, taking a detour to think things over?" Winn tried, but Alex wasn't in the mood for guessing. "Hack her phone."

"But-…"

Alex glared at him, an angry fire burning in her eyes.

Winn sighed, taking Maggie's coordinates and trying to duplicate her phone on the DEO server. It took much longer without the direct connection they had earlier, but after a few impatient minutes, the messages finally appeared.

Both agents' eyes widened.

" _Bring the meeting forw-_ …" Winn started, but before he could continue, Alex was already running out the door.

A few seconds later, Winn realized that he'd evidently failed at the one task J'onn had given him, and winced. "Shit… shit..." He rubbed his head trying to think about his options.

Deciding against telling J'onn about his failure, he dialed Kara's number instead.

A click. Then, Kara's rushed voice. " _Winn, I'm in a CatCo meeting, can it wait?!"_

"No. I need you here, at the DEO. It's an emergency."

A sigh from the other end of the line. " _I'll be there in five_."

Winn disconnected the call and leaned back, hoping that he wasn't too late.

* * *

Alex ran through the streets, cursing herself for not bringing any type of body armor or protection. She only had her gun. Though, if Landon Hayes was the guy they were looking for, a gun would be all she needed to put a bullet through his head and end him terrorizing and stalking her girlfriend.

She tried to do the math in her head. The docks were ten minutes away from where she was right now if she kept running. The text message had been sent a little under twenty minutes ago… It was cutting it close. If she didn't make it in time, Maggie could be dead.

Alex willed herself to keep sprinting as fast as she could on pure adrenalin and rage, as she tried Maggie's cellphone again. And again.

 _Fuck_. This was beyond Maggie not wanting to talk to her. Maggie had to know that Alex wouldn't call her five consecutive times just to say she was sorry.

She _had_ to know…

Alex felt her heart beating painfully in her chest as she willed herself to speed up even more, to try and get to the docks in time. To save Maggie.

* * *

They'd already pulled the car out of the water.

It was like a mere seven hours ago, nothing had happened at all.

Maggie couldn't help but laugh grimly at how stupid fate had been that morning. If only she hadn't gotten up after Alex left. If only Alex hadn't wanted to go on a run. If only…

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now anyway. Might as well own it.

In her storm-out of the DEO, she'd completely forgotten her belt again, so she was defenseless and unarmed. Not the ideal combination for meeting your stalker slash murderer.

The by now familiar buzzing in her pocket snapped her out of her thoughts as she reached for her phone.

 _EDT04._

Maggie frowned at the jumbled text, looking around. Then, she realized it had to mean something. A code, maybe.

Or a serial number.

She noticed the large shipping containers stacked up in a large cargo storage on the other side of the street, from the nearby port, and crossed the road quickly.

The gate was unlocked, oddly enough, as she carefully made her way over to the nearest container, looking around for a serial number. She found it, but it wasn't the one she'd been looking for.

" _EDT04_ …" She whispered to herself as she looked around, going from container to container to try and find the right one. If she was looking for the wrong thing, she figured, Landon would probably send her a message to either taunt her or correct her. So when it didn't happen, she knew she was at least looking in the right direction.

As she checked out another row of crates, all of a sudden, she heard a noise behind her.

Footsteps.

She crouched behind the nearest cover immediately, clenching her eyes shut and wishing desperately she'd had her gun, before trying to move to the edge of the crate to peek around the corner.

The sling around her right arm was slowing her movements down terribly. And as much as the wound still hurt her, she needed both arms to function in a life-threatening confrontation with her stalker.

So she undid the straps and slung it over her shoulder carelessly, flexing her arm. It was still tender, but she had to bite through the pain and focus.

The footsteps came closer. _This was it._ She was about to meet her stalker eye to eye.

…Maybe she could jump him if she had the element of surprise?

She decided to go with the tactic and crossed over to the other side of the crates, seeing a figure nearing.

She counted in her head. 3…2…1…

Maggie jumped out from behind the boxes and ran up to the perpetrator, tackling them from behind and reaching for their neck with her good hand.

It wasn't until she was thrown off and landed hard on the ground, her right arm hitting the deck first, that she realized she'd miscalculated completely.

And her reward was a horrible, immobilizing pain spreading through her arm, making her yell out and curl up into a ball on the ground.

" _Maggie_ …"

Alex. It had been Alex.

A thousand thoughts ran through Maggie's head. Honestly, Alex had acted reflexively so she barely blamed her for slamming her down. But that didn't make the pain any less unbearable.

"W-what… Are you _doing_ here, Alex?!" Maggie managed to whimper through the tears forming in her eyes. "Y-you can't _be_ here!"

Alex responded by leaning forward and putting a gentle kiss on Maggie's lips. "Shut up and let me help you."

"No… This isn't…" _some stupid love thing where you can kiss it all better_ , she tried to say. But the words failed her, as she knew she was close to passing out from the pain.

Alex opened her mouth to reply, but then her head shot up, and she reached for her gun. Maggie hadn't heard or seen anything, but her position on the floor made it hard to notice much of anything.

"What the _hell_ do you want?!" Alex yelled, raising her gun at something to Maggie's left. The detective turned her head to the side, and vaguely saw a hooded, masked figure standing in the middle of the container yard, holding a taser in one hand, and a gun in the other.

Maggie knew she had to get up. She had to be alert. So she gritted her teeth and crawled up, pushing back the vomit that almost made its way to her mouth.

Alex had her gun pointed at the figure, and her face was blank with hatred. "I'm going to give you five seconds to drop the gun or I'll put a bullet through your eyes, Hayes."

Though Maggie was still dizzy, she hadn't imagined the figure – Landon? - turning their head to look at her. " _Maggie_."

A voice modulator.

" _Come here_."

Maggie swallowed thickly, and threw one last glance at Alex, before starting to walk in the masked figure's direction.

"Maggie, what are you doing?!" Alex frowned as she saw her moving. "Get back here! Don't-!"

Maggie turned her head and threw a sad glance at Alex. "I'm sorry. I _have_ to."

"No, Maggie, stop!" Alex had never felt this helpless. She saw Maggie walk up to the figure.

"Now what?!" Maggie asked, trying to sound cold and hardened while she felt her insides cramping up.

" _Now you come with me_." The figure said.

"Maggie!" Alex's voice again.

The figure ignored Alex and started walking back towards the street. Maggie followed, trying to resist looking back to Alex as she knew the agent was yelling for her. Truth be told, she was well aware that she was walking into a trap. That she could be shot point blank any second now.

But instead of all the tragic scenarios running through her head, there was nothing. Just the walking.

Alex, behind them, now yelled out as she fired a warning shot in the air. Maggie flinched at the _crack_ of the gunshot. But the figure next to her didn't visibly react.

"Landon. I'm sorry about what happened to your family. And if you want to blame me, blame me. But I tried to save them." Maggie tried pleading. It was the only thing she hadn't tried yet. Maybe she could get him to snap. Maybe…

Landon didn't respond. He kept on walking.

But Maggie knew that Alex wasn't going to let them get away without a fight. So when she heard footsteps behind her, she knew she had to act.

She turned around to face her girlfriend, and jumped away as Alex fired a burst of rounds into the figure's back.

Neither women expected the bullets to bounce off the man.

Maggie was shocked, as she reached forward to pull the mask off the man.

The void, black eyes staring back at her weren't remotely close to the ones she'd seen on the man in the car. They were alien.

It wasn't Landon Hayes.

As Maggie turned to look at Alex, trying to see what her girlfriend was thinking, she felt the alien's hand wrap around her throat.

She vaguely heard Alex's yelling, followed by multiple gunshots, but she couldn't move to see who had fired

A pained grunt to her right made her heart stop. The sound of something hitting the ground. _No..._ _Alex couldn't have been hit… Please… God… no..._

The alien kept on squeezing her throat, until she felt herself being lifted.

She was teleported.

And then, all she saw was darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

Kara had never flown faster in her life.

She was pretty sure she'd broken the sound barrier on multiple occasions, but this… This was something else.

As she'd raced into the DEO, the only thing Winn had said was "The docks. They're in danger, hurry."

It was all she had needed for her heart to stop. For her stomach to turn. And for her to fly the fastest she'd ever flown.

To the docks, where she hoped Alex and Maggie would still be alive. Not lured into some trap, not murdered, not…

Turns out none of Kara's wishful thinking had helped.

Because the sight of her sister sitting upright and leaning against a container, a big smear of blood behind her like she'd dragged herself away, and a face contorted with pain made tears appear in her eyes.

She landed next to her with a little more force than necessary, and kneeled by her sister's side. "Alex… oh _Rao…_ "

" _Kara_ …" Alex managed to mumble through gritted teeth, clutching at her thigh. Kara leaned down to see the blood seeping through her shaking fingers. "No… No…"

Then, another thought crossed Kara's mind, as her sister was alone. "Maggie! Alex, where's Maggie?!"

Alex mumbled something weakly, but the heroine couldn't understand it. She leaned closer, but the agent coughed, and gasped for air, and she realized she had to get her out of there, and fast.

She took her into her arms, and launched herself up in the sky, back to the DEO.

Within the next 5 minutes, Alex had already been rushed into surgery, Kara had collapsed onto her knees in shock, and J'onn had emerged to a shaky Kara telling him what happened.

She didn't leave her sister's side, through the procedure. And she was up, holding her hand, the second Alex opened her eyes again.

"Careful…" Kara whispered as she felt Alex trying to sit upright.

Alex grunted. "Maggie!"

Kara pushed Alex back down onto the bed. "Take it easy. You've lost a lot of blood."

"I feel fine." Alex snapped. "Where is Maggie? That asshole was choking her!"

"I don't know where she is." Kara sighed. "I found you bleeding out, so I took you here."

"Oh god… They took her..." Alex felt sick to her stomach. Her girlfriend, the love of her life… She'd lost her. To… Landon Hayes…?

"It was an alien." Alex swallowed thickly, trying to keep clinical, to keep the feelings out. There wasn't any time for emotions now. "He shot me."

"There was no bullet. It was some sort of laser, you lost a lot of blood but Hamilton said there wasn't any damage."

"I don't _care_ about that, Kara." Alex snapped again. "It means it wasn't Landon! This entire thing was a trap!"

Kara sighed, as Alex started to sob. She had no idea how to help her sister or Maggie. So she settled on holding Alex, feeling her shake, and whispering comforting words to her, knowing that none of them helped.

* * *

The second J'onn had heard Kara's relay of the events, he ran back to the command center to grab Winn by the back of his shirt in a highly unprofessional manner – not that he gave a damn – and yell at him. "What did I tell you?!"

" _Easy_!" Winn cried out, raising his hands. "I'm sorry! Maggie ran out and we didn't see that she got another text to meet him earlier!"

"It wasn't _him_ , Winn!" J'onn shouted, completely losing his patience. "Landon Hayes _doesn't_ _exist_!"

"Wait, what?!" Winn's eyes widened. "What do you mean, he doesn't exist?!"

"All the information you pulled up is fake. It's all planted, that's what they do!"

"Who? What is going on?!" Winn was completely at a loss. J'onn stepped back and sighed, shaking his head.

"Those aliens that we brought in, those smugglers."

Winn nodded.

"They're part of a bigger cartel. A group of aliens that try to capture powerful people on this planet to use as pawns in their game of taking over control. They've managed to annex hundreds of planets like this. I've seen it happen before."

"But why would they want Maggie? They've seen Supergirl, why wouldn't they go for her?!"

"Kara isn't interesting as a target. If you take Supergirl out of the public eye, everybody will notice. But a police officer responsible for dealing with alien crimes… that'd be a gold mine if they knew how to use it. I've seen them take down a planet with a baker and two mineworkers, Winn!"

"So, they brainwash her? Wipe her memories? I don't…" Winn tried to make sense of it in his head, but every time he grasped at logic, it flew past him.

J'onn sighed. "I gambled, Winn. I called Alex and Kara in because I needed those aliens that turned themselves in to pick either one of them as their mark, to figure out how they worked. I put them in _danger_ because I knew it would pay off in the end, and I'd protect whoever was marked myself, but… I failed."

"Then how could they have marked Maggie?" Winn asked.

"The knife. They put something in her by stabbing her. I don't know exactly how it works, but they know where Maggie is, at all times. She's in danger."

"They took her." Winn whispered.

J'onn nodded. "And if they took her, that means we've run out of time."

* * *

The first thing she felt was a pounding in her head. Her throat hurt. She was lying on her stomach on something hard – probably the ground.

 _Head to toes, come on, Sawyer._

Nothing else appeared to be hurt, except for the burning in her arm that she'd been vaguely used to.

It took her another three seconds to remember what had happened before she woke up.

Those gunshots… _Alex_ …

She shot up, ignoring the pain shooting through her head. She didn't recognize where she was, at all. Some place dark. It smelled like dirt, and she could hear the sound of water dripping down onto a puddle.

Shit… where had they taken her? Was she still on Earth?!

A low grunt escaped her when she tried to move around, and it reverberated off the walls.

"You're awake."

She jumped at the voice behind her, and vaguely made out a figure leaning against the wall in the corner.

"W-who are you…?" She whispered, raising her left arm just in case she was jumped.

The figure sighed, and clicked on a light nearby, bathing the room in a dirty yellow light. Maggie winced at the pain shooting through her skull.

"Sorry, I didn't-… They've been rough with me, I know how much the light can hurt when you wake up."

She finally opened her eyes again, and looked at the figure, her eyes widening.

"Landon Hayes…?"

The man smiled sadly. "So, they got you too?"


	8. Chapter 8

"Landon?! How, I…" Maggie frowned, shaking her head. He looked fine. Not even shaken up, not even scared to see her.

"How do you know my name?" Landon frowned, leaning back. "Who are you?!"

"I… I rescued you. From the car." Maggie's voice was shaky.

"I- what?" Landon laughed, shaking his head. "I've been locked up here for ages… What are you talking about?"

" _It wasn't you_..." She whispered, seeing that Landon's stance had relaxed. It didn't make her feel any less uneasy, but at least it helped to have a conversation with him.

He sighed. "I've been stuck here for days. My family, I-… They took them, I don't know where they are. Did you see them when they brought you here?"

For a second, Maggie didn't know what to do. If it was some sort of duplicate, a _clone_ of the guy walking around… Then either his family were clones too… Or they weren't.

And those were actual bodies in the car.

"I didn't see them." Maggie shook her head. "Just you. You were in a car, I rescued you, you stabbed me."

"Sorry about that." Landon chuckled dryly. "Well, not much I could have done about it from here, though. I think they have a version of me running around and doing stuff…"

"Why?! Who is 'they'?"

"Some aliens." Landon sighed. "They probably want me for my research. I've been studying the genetics of human mutation as a counter to alien abilities."

Maggie laughed weakly, and leaned back. "You'd like my girlfriend then, she's into all that DNA stuff too."

"A scientist?" He asked, looking intrigued.

Maggie shrugged. "Something like that."

Landon smiled. "So, what do they want _you_ for?"

"Probably either because I'm an NCPD alien expert, or because I have a girlfriend that's something like a scientist."

"Ah." Landon nodded. "Yeah, those could work."

"I'm Maggie, by the way. Sawyer." Maggie raised her hand for him to shake, and he gently took it in his. She noticed how much he was shaking.

"Nice to meet you, however nice it can be under the circumstances."

Maggie dropped to the ground, leaning against the wall of the cell. "I can imagine you've been lonely."

"I just miss my family. I hope they're okay. That they were just… _bait_ , you know. That they're safe."

"I read your files."

Landon looked at her. "My files?"

"You were stalking me. Sending me messages, threatening me. Obviously now that I _know_ , it wasn't you… I wanted to know who you were so I read your documents. I'm guessing they forged most of it."

Landon dropped his head and thought for a second. "Well, I'm a doctor, I have a wife and two kids. I work at National City General, and I do underground research about human and alien DNA. That's about it. I like playing squash, if that's a dirty little secret you found."

Maggie sighed. "It said that you were psychotic. Schizophrenia. That you probably kidnapped your whole family before plunging your car into the river."

Landon swallowed thickly. "They're trying to frame me...?"

Maggie didn't reply. She shrugged, as she saw Landon taking a seat next to her with a dejected sigh. "That's not good." He looked up at her. "What do they want with us? Why would they have another me running around?"

The detective didn't have an answer.

"I have a feeling we're going to find out."

* * *

It was only a matter of time until Alex found out what he did.

J'onn knew he owed it to both Danvers sisters to tell them the story about the alien prisoners, and how he'd taken a huge risk.

Truth be told, he'd anticipated Kara's disappointed reaction. And he'd expected anger from Alex, pure unadulterated rage, for putting them both in danger, and gambling with Maggie's life like that.

But instead of anger, he got a venomous side to Alex Danvers that he never wanted to see again in his lifetime. An Alex that pointed a finger at him, and never broke eye contact as she whispered threateningly. "If they touch as much as a _hair_ on her body, you're going to _pay_ for it, J'onn."

Kara had tried to reason with Alex, knowing well enough that J'onn could have never foreseen the aliens targeting Maggie, though it was hard for her to stay neutral in the fight, as she turned to J'onn. "You could have told us. You _should_ have told us. We'd have followed your orders. But this…"

J'onn sighed, dropping his head. He knew he'd failed. "You're my second-in-command, Alex. And you were right this morning, I did owe you the truth, and I didn't give it to you."

"You're goddamn right." Alex hissed though her teeth. J'onn shook his head. "I'm going to visit some of the other planets they've taken, to see how they work. Maybe I can find some clues on how to bring them down."

Kara frowned. "You're… _leaving_?"

"You're in charge, Alex." J'onn looked at her, trying not to wince at the sight of Alex's eyes changing from anger to disappointment, to - he knew it was faked - indifference. "I'll keep you updated, I've briefed Winn on how to communicate with me off-world. I… I failed you. The both of you. But we can't let that get in the way of getting that alien cartel on its knees. We can't lose this battle."

He took a deep breath, and looked at Alex. "Good luck, director Danvers."

After that, he walked out of the med bay, leaving a confused Kara, and a hardened Alex behind. As soon as he left, Alex breathed out a sigh. "Good riddance. He probably killed my girlfriend, and he put you in danger."

"Maggie's not dead." Kara countered. "She can't be, they wouldn't have kidnapped her if they didn't need her for something."

"Like they needed Landon to stalk her? To _stab_ her? _God…_ " Alex closed her eyes and winced, as a tear slipped down her cheek. Kara grabbed her hand, but Alex pulled back, and wiped it off her face. "No, I need to… We need a plan. We're going to get her back. I'm not going home without her."

"I second that." Kara smiled weakly, but her brow furrowed as she watched Alex trying to get off the bed. "Hey, no… Hamilton said you can't put too much pressure on your leg…"

"…I need to go rescue Maggie." Alex grunted, experimentally putting her weight on her leg, and finding to her surprise that the pain was manageable. "It wasn't even a real bullet, I'm fine."

As the pair walked over to the command center, they were greeted with the sight of Winn typing on two keyboards at the same time, a flurry of data and numbers flying across the monitors. He threw a look over his shoulder to the both of them, and turned back to the screen. "I got a signal from the docks when you and Maggie were there. Some type of release of energy, I'm trying to identify it. If I can program software that tracks it automatically…"

He was basically talking to himself, but it was all Alex and Kara needed to get hopeful again. Kara patted Winn on the back and watched him work, as Alex took a deep breath.

 _Director Danvers. She could do this_.

Failure wasn't an option.

Never seeing Maggie again wasn't an option.

The boxed ring in her apartment never wrapping around the finger of the most gorgeous woman in the world _wasn't an option_.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Just wanted to thank you all for the lovely reviews of this story. I'm having a lot of fun writing it, so I'm glad to see you're all enjoying it too!**

* * *

"Okay. The energy that was released… It was some sort of magnetic thing… It's never been seen on this planet, according to what I can find here." Winn tapped the tablet in his hand.

"It's a teleportation device." Alex sighed, crossing her arms. "He was choking her, then there was this bright light, and then the both of them were gone. Did it appear anywhere else?"

"I can't analyze it because I wasn't looking for it." Winn shook his head. "Like I said, technology that hasn't been invented on this planet, there's nothing I can do but wait and hope that it pops up again."

"Okay, well, that's a start." Kara stepped forward. "We lure them. Make them appear, get that footprint so we can track it."

She turned to her sister. "They took Maggie for a reason. Probably something to do with her job."

"Let an alien attack the city, let them see that Supergirl can't defeat it. They'll be interested." Alex supplied. Kara nodded. "NCPD on the scene, Maggie's going to need to be there."

"I'll get a team prepped to assist you."

Kara grabbed her sister's wrist before she could run off. "We're going to get her back."

Alex smiled weakly. "Yeah."

* * *

Not even one hour later, Alex Danvers found herself in a DEO Humvee, in full gear, along with five other agents. Supergirl had released one of the tougher looking aliens from the prison cells, and dropped him near the park, where she knew he couldn't hurt all that many people, and had decided to go ahead, after getting a strict briefing from Alex.

"You're staying on comms at _all times_. Do you remember the emergency phrase?"

"'He's too powerful'." Kara quoted. "I got this, Alex. When we captured him I got him in seconds, if something goes wrong I'll just get him again."

Alex was fidgeting. She usually was nervous before a mission, but that was before. Before Maggie's life was on the line. Before she was _director_ of the DEO.

"Approaching." Kara said in her ear. "…I'm on location. I can see him."

"We're two minutes out. Play it cool." Alex tapped her earpiece. "Don't make anything seem out of the ordinary. They'll be watching."

"Copy."

Alex leaned back, and tried to relax for the seconds of peace she had left. This had to work. She didn't have the slightest idea how else they could track down those aliens.

"Ma'am." One of her agents, Walker, tapped her shoulder, and she turned around to look at him as he raised the scanning device he was holding. "NCPD got word of the alien attack. They're sending teams…" He listened again. "…They're going to send in the science division."

"Good. Keep listening." She turned back around, just in time for the park to appear in front of her, though the windshield. She jumped out of the vehicle and started yelling out orders. "Stand-by. Only engage on my command."

A chorus of 'copy's' echoed through her vicinity as the agents got to work. Alex looked up to see Supergirl fighting with the alien, but losing badly.

"Supergirl, how are you doing?"

"Could do this for hours." Kara replied. Her sister smiled weakly, before going back into professional mode. "Winn, anything?"

Winn, back at the DEO command center trying to track the teleportation, sighed. "Nothing yet, but I'm on it. I guess we'll have to wait it out."

Alex nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Let's give them some time. Supergirl, maybe lose a little more?"

"You got it." Kara said, just in time to get socked in the jaw, and drop down to the ground leaving deep drag marks in the grass and dirt below her. Alex winced, but knew Kara could take it. She'd ask for help if she couldn't.

"NCPD is on scene." She heard agent Walker from the Humvee announce on their channel, as she saw flashing sirens.

"Contact! Near the squad cars!" Winn yelled out. "It's the same teleportation beam, I saved it!"

Alex sighed in relief. "Hold your positions. Walker, Johnson, with me. We're going to investigate the beam."

"Copy."

Alex slung her rifle over her shoulder and made her way over to the NCPD, where officers were already trying to keep civilians back. A few detectives – Alex recognized them by the badge – were huddled around. She walked over to them. "We've got this."

She eyed every one of them carefully, trying to recognize any of them as alien, but all of them looked relatively pissed to see her. "This isn't a fed case."

Alex turned to the man. "And you are…?"

"Jack McConnell. I've been serving this city since before you wore _diapers._ You feds all think you're high and mighty because you've got the Girl of Steel, but by the looks of it she isn't really doing a great job of winning, is she?"

Alex glanced over her shoulder to where Kara was still losing comfortably. She turned back with a polite smile. "I can assure you, she's got it under control."

"This is a police case, agent Danvers."

Alex spun around at the sound of her name being called in such a familiar tone, and her heart jumped when she saw who was calling her.

Maggie, in her oversized windbreaker, walking up towards her with a professional frown on her face. "We need to move in before that alien causes any more damage or casualties, Supergirl or not."

Alex opened her mouth, but she found that none of the thousands of questions running through her mind could be spoken out loud there and then. Maggie was acting like nothing had happened, _no_ , she was acting like she didn't _know_ Alex.

 _Had they wiped her memory?_

"Walker, Johnson, head back and regroup. We need to stand by for Supergirl's extraction."

The two agents left, as Maggie looked back to the group of detectives. "Excuse us for a moment."

Alex's frown deepened as she saw Maggie ignoring the fight going on above their heads and walking to a more private part of the park. Alex followed her quickly, and only when Maggie turned around to face her, did she see the fear on her face, masked quickly by the same look of indifference she'd been giving all along.

"Alex, they're everywhere. They're following me, listening to me. I don't know what to do."

"I'm going to help you. You need to come back with us to the DEO, you'll be safe there."

"No." Maggie shook her head so lightly that Alex almost didn't catch it. "I can't. They need me back."

"Where? Give me _something_ , Mags."

"They want a database of aliens. The NCPD has one but it probably only has a tenth of all the aliens in National City… They beat me, drugged me up, they wouldn't _stop_ …" Maggie's voice cracked. "…I kept on saying I knew nothing about it. Then they told me I needed to come here and act like nothing was wrong. If I don't get that database within twelve hours they're going to kill me and find somebody else to do it."

Alex's stomach somersaulted at the implications, wrapping her arms around the detective, and carefully dropping something into her pocket while doing so. "I love you. It's going to be okay, I'm here. We'll figure this out."

Maggie stepped away from the hug. "We need to stay professional. They know we're dating, but we shouldn't give them a show. I-…" She hesitated. "I need to go back. Just… Will you help me with the database?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll help you." Alex nodded sincerely as she watched the detective walk back to her colleagues. With a deep sigh, she tapped her earpiece. "Mission completed, wrap it up, guys."

Within seconds, the NCPD detectives were muted, and stared at the sky, where Supergirl effortlessly took control of the situation, and rammed the alien onto the ground, where the strike team moved in to immobilize her opponent.

Alex went back to the Humvee, dropping her face into her hands. She was shaking.

The alien database, of course. The DEO had a list of every alien in National City, and _of course_ those smugglers wanted their hands on it. She couldn't give up the identity of every known alien, good _or_ evil.

But she had to help Maggie, before they realized that she was worthless and killed her.

Looking back to where Supergirl was now talking to her agents, Alex realized she needed to make a decision.

She couldn't tell the rest of the DEO what she was up to, because they'd never agree on giving up the database. Especially not Kara.

But she'd do anything in her power to bring Maggie home.

And if that database was whatever was standing between her and her girlfriend having the rest of their lives together, then that's exactly what they would get.


	10. Chapter 10

"What is she like?"

Maggie snapped out of her thoughts at the question. It had broken the silence between the two of them. "What?"

"Your girlfriend. The scientist. What is she like?"

Maggie thought for a second, a small smile appearing on her face. "She's… Smart. Super smart. A total badass…" She trailed off. "… Absolutely gorgeous, inside and out. I don't deserve her."

"Do you think she's looking for you?" Landon asked. Maggie sighed, and shrugged her shoulders, her voice cracking on the answer. "To be honest, I don't even know if she's still alive."

When Landon looked at her with a frown, she continued. "I heard gunshots when that alien took me. I heard her fall, I… I couldn't see her."

Landon didn't know how to respond, so he settled on putting a hand on her shoulder. "We're going to get out of here. Both of us. And we're going to go back to our families."

Maggie nodded weakly. She knew that the chances of them getting out of there unharmed were slim.

But she had to try.

The door to their cell opened, and Maggie got to her feet, alerted immediately.

Before she knew it, she was pulled out of the cell by the back of her jacket.

* * *

Alex ran down the stairs to the command center, and made her way towards Winn.

"Hey!" He greeted her. "Good job on the mission."

"It was _Maggie_."

"What? Where? How?!" Winn's eyes widened. Alex sniffed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "She uh… She was there with the NCPD. Acting like nothing happened. And then when I went to talk to her… She told me she was being tortured. But I didn't _see_ anything on her. She didn't look _hurt_."

"That's… uh…" Winn was at a loss. "Odd."

"But I managed to put a tracker in her!" Alex swallowed thickly. "I put it in her pocket… Could you…"

The question was left unfinished, but Winn knew what she was asking. He nodded. "Of course, Alex."

It took half a minute for the software to open, and the only thing on Alex's mind was how _surreal_ it had been for her to see her girlfriend like that… To not be able to care for her. So close, but so far away…

"Got it. She's… At her apartment?" Winn seemed surprised himself. "I… didn't see that one coming."

But Alex was already up and on her way. "Wait, where are you going?!"

"Where do you _think_?!" She shouted back.

"No, no, Alex, you can't go in there, it could be a trap!"

"Well, then, tell Kara to come!" She yelled over her shoulder, before running out of the DEO. Winn sighed as he was left alone once again, and turned back to his work.

A few minutes later. He clicked it, and saw J'onn's face.

"J'onn! How are you doing?!"

"I need to talk to Alex, Winn. It's urgent." J'onn insisted. Winn grunted. "Uh, you just missed her, she ran out. We wanted to lure the aliens out with a staged Supergirl save, and Maggie showed up."

"Repeat that, Winn?!" J'onn asked.

Winn frowned. "Uh… Alex saw Maggie at the scene, she managed to put a tracker on her and she's now heading to Maggie's location."

"Winn, tell her to fall back, _now_!" J'onn yelled. "It's not her!"

"What- Huh, what are you talking about?!" Winn didn't like the sound of that. Not one bit.

"It _means_ they take over planets by shapeshifting into their subjects to get access to classified data! You have to stop Alex, it's _not_ Maggie! That thing could kill her!"

"Shit…shit…" Winn's fingers danced around the keyboard and reached for his earpiece. "Alex! Alex, come in!"

The other side of the line was silent. Winn winced involuntarily as he changed channels. "Kara!"

Winn became lightheaded at the relief of hearing Kara's annoyed voice. "Winn, I'm literally next door, why are you-…"

He interrupted her quickly. "-You need to hurry. Maggie's apartment. Alex is on her way there, she thinks Maggie's there but it's a shapeshifting alien, it's a trap!"

The next second, he felt something speed past him, causing all of the papers on his desk to fly away. With a sigh, he leaned down to pick them up.

At least Kara was on her way.

He just hoped she wasn't too late.

* * *

Alex drew her gun as she reached Maggie's apartment door, and knocked. She took a step back, and waited.

A few seconds later, the door opened, and Maggie appeared, a confused frown on her face. "Alex… Why are you here?! You can't _be_ here!"

"Why are _you_ here?!" Alex shot back.

"They just left me here and told me not to draw any attention while I figured out how to get the list!"

"Why didn't you just come into the DEO? _God_ , Maggie, what are you trying to do? Scare me to death? You told me they were torturing you!"

"Put the gun away, Alex." Maggie nodded towards the firearm in Alex's right hand. "…And get out. Unless you have that list for me, there's nothing you can do."

"Hey…" Alex shook her head. "I'm here for _you_. You're my girlfriend, I want to make sure you're okay."

"Well, you did, and I am. Do you have the list?!"

Alex narrowed her eyes. Something about the entire situation felt off. Maggie would never insist on Alex risking her life for that list… She wouldn't even _want_ to get the list herself.

Before she could open her mouth, a loud crash came from their right. Alex reflexively jumped out of the way and drew her gun again, her heart pounding dangerously. But when she saw it was Kara, in Supergirl attire, standing in the middle of Maggie's apartment, she jumped up again.

"What are you-…" She managed, before Kara sped towards Maggie and grabbed her by the throat, throwing her backwards like a ragdoll until she hit the wall on the other side of her apartment with a loud _crack_.

Alex shrieked. " _Maggie_!"

Kara turned around to pull Alex back in her sprint towards her girlfriend. "Alex, it's not her!"

Maggie didn't move or respond, and Alex's heart stopped. "Kara, what the _fuck_ is wrong with you?!"

The blonde frowned, as her sister ran up to her and attempted to shove her away. "Alex, listen to me! It's an alien, somebody impersonating her! It's not her!"

" _Al…ex_ …" A weak moan from the other side of the room. Alex sobbed as she ran towards Maggie and knelt down, her sister trailing closely behind her. "Alex, be _careful_!"

Alex ignored her sister, as she took Maggie's face in her hands. "Mags…"

"Al…" Maggie winced, a cough escaping her body, causing blood to fly out of her mouth. "W-what...?"

"Baby, I'm here…" Alex sobbed, before looking up at Kara. "What did you _do_ …!"

"I…" Kara was at a loss for words. At that point, surely, the alien that impersonated Maggie should have fought back against her…

Why hadn't it fought back?!

Another cough wrecked Maggie's body, as she started shaking. "Al… _please..._ _h-hold me_ …"

Alex was full-on crying now, as she leaned forward to hold Maggie's broken body against her. "I love you… I love you, I love you…"

Kara didn't need her x-ray vision to tell how many bones she'd broken in Maggie's body. The tears were spilling out of her eyes because _she'd made a mistake…_

"I… love you… _t-too_ …" Maggie moaned weakly. After another painful gasp of air, she went still and silent. Alex shook her head. "No… No, Maggie… No, no, you have to wake up…"

Kara closed her eyes and looked away. She couldn't bear to her the sound of her sister's desperate calling for another second.

She was a killer. She had Maggie's blood on her hands.

Maggie, who wasn't responding anymore. Who was lying dead and broken in Alex's shaking arms.

She stumbled backwards, and flew out of the apartment, until Alex's sobbed screams were no longer filling her ears.


	11. Chapter 11

When Maggie woke up, there was a huge pounding in her head. She winced against the sharp light flooding whatever room she was in, and tried to get her bearings.

She was tied to a chair, cuffs around her arms, and a fluorescent light buzzing above her.

"I see you're awake." A voice behind her. Maggie turned her head instinctively, but groaned as the pain in her head worsened. She didn't recognize the figure now walking around her, but knew for a fact that he was alien – if the black in his eyes was any indication.

She struggled against the cuffs, and gritted her teeth trying to ignore the pain shooting through her body. "What do you want?!"

"We want a lot of things." The alien smirked, now crouching down in front of her. Maggie raised an eyebrow in defiance. "So do I, that doesn't make me go out and kidnap people."

A long, slender finger made its way to her chin, as the alien gripped her face. She winced, as she felt the pressure increase. "Your girlfriend has been… helping us greatly."

Maggie's heart stopped. So Alex was still alive…

The relief flooding through her mind was short-lived, as she realized the gravity of the words. Alex was helping those aliens. That wasn't good.

"You have something we need." The alien continued. "If you get it for us within the next 6 hours, we will release you. If you fail – we will kill you."

Well, what else was new. It's not like Maggie wasn't used to being threatened in her line of work. Though, that didn't mean she was ready to comply.

The alien's face was still right in front of hers, and Maggie leaned back quickly, raising her leg to kick the alien in the face. She smirked as she heard the satisfying _thud_ of her boot hitting its target.

Before the alien bounced back and gripped her by the front of her shirt. "You're going to regret that."

Maggie was still too busy smirking, as she watched the alien uncuff her with a flick of its wrist. The ties around her hands clattered to the ground.

Before she could move, she felt a sharp pinch in her neck, as the alien injected something. She instinctively tried to fight him off, but he shoved her away as soon as he was done, sending her backwards and tripping over the chair.

"You're going to get the list of all aliens in National City from the DEO server. Within six hours, or you will watch your girlfriend and Supergirl bleed out in front of you."

Maggie swallowed thickly, resisting the urge to kick the alien's ass again for even _thinking_ about hurting Alex. But if he let her go, maybe she could contact Alex again. Maybe she could help.

"Fine. Deal."

"Very well. We'll be watching." The alien said. And with another flick of its wrist, Maggie felt herself lift off the ground.

When her feet touched the ground again, she lost her balance immediately and toppled onto the ground, the pain in her head worsening again. She grunted, as she pushed herself up slowly to rest on her knees.

Upon first look, she realized that she was back in National City – if she'd even left it. And she was in an alley near the DEO buildings.

"Okay… _okay_ …" Maggie said to herself, trying to force her shaking hands to still.

The DEO alien registry. There wasn't a chance in hell she was going to give a bunch of aliens whatever they wanted, but it was a start. They could move on from there.

As she started to make her way over to the entrance of the building, she saw a streak of red and blue landing on the balcony above her. _Kara_.

In that moment, she hesitated. She couldn't exactly waltz into the DEO and ask them to hand her the list. And the alien said that he'd be watching. Would it really be wise to take that risk? He'd probably injected her with a tracker…

Then again, odds were he knew about the location and purpose of the DEO, otherwise they wouldn't have sent her here.

Much to her surprise, she found a phone in her pocket, identical to her own phone. Upon investigating, she noticed that even her contacts and pictures were there. They had to have cloned it.

She decided to call Winn first. God knows the tech guy could help her make sense of the situation. It took a few tries to call him, as her fingers were still shaking. But on the third try, she finally got it right.

After a few moments, the line clicked, and Winn's anxious voice came through. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Winn? It's me, Maggie." Maggie said, in a hushed voice. "Are you alone?"

"Listen, I don't know what games you're playing, but-…"

Maggie interrupted him quickly. "-Winn, I'm serious. I need to speak to you alone."

"How do I know it's Maggie?" Came Winn's uncertain voice. The detective sighed. "Last week during game night you spilled your beer all over Alex's Cards Against Humanity deck, and you cried because you thought you ruined it and Alex was going to kick your ass."

A stumbling on the other line, and the sound of footsteps. Maggie grunted impatiently, before Winn's voice came back. "I'm alone now. But any psychic being can get that memory out of Maggie's head and sound like her."

"What?" Maggie frowned. "Winn, they took me somewhere, they let me go, but I need your help. They're going to come after Alex and Kara if I don't do what they say."

"Which is?"

"I need the DEO alien list. I'm never going to actually _give_ it to them, but I don't know what to do."

Winn grunted. "You know what? Fuck off."

Maggie's eyes widened. "Winn, what the-…"

"I'm not helping another one of your clones, whoever you are."

"Clones? Winn, it's me-…!" Maggie tried, but Winn disconnected the call before she could continue. She stared at her phone for a few seconds, in complete shock. " _Clones?!_ "

* * *

The heads in the DEO all turned into Alex's direction as soon as she entered. Usually, it was meant a sign of respect, as she was the DEO's second-in-command, and had a very pristine reputation around the headquarters, but right now, everyone's face showed the same _damn_ sympathy that she _didn't need_.

Nothing mattered anymore. Her soulmate, the woman she loved more than anything in this world, the woman she would have died for.

Gone before Alex even had the _chance_ to die for her.

Out of the corners of her eyes she noticed an exasperated Winn entering the command center from a storage room. She ignored him, she ignored everybody.

Instead, she headed straight for her lab, and locked the doors behind her.

She never wanted to see the light of day again, if Maggie wasn't there with her.

* * *

The case files.

The alien smugglers, the cartel the DEO had been looking for. It had been a joined task force with the NCPD. Maggie had briefly been involved, but had backed off when she noticed that the DEO had everything under control. But the case files, those were still at her apartment. Maybe they could explain what was happening, as Maggie was truly at a loss.

With a frown, she saw that her apartment door was ajar, something neither she or Alex ever did. Their apartments had too much sensitive information. She pushed the door open, wishing desperately that she had a gun on her, and slowly stepped inside.

The living room was a mess. Her table was smashed, there was debris and broken furniture everywhere, and the windows to her balcony were shattered. It looked like there had been a serious fight.

There was _blood on the walls_. Maggie's stomach turned at the sight, praying desperately that none of it belonged to Alex.

Nothing prepared her for the sight of the gruesomely broken body lying next to the wall.

Her _own_ broken body.

"Oh god…" Maggie felt bile rise up into her throat. She pushed it down as she made her way over to the scene. It was _her_. She was dead.

The tears sprung into her eyes and traveled down her cheeks. It was horrible, her blood ran cold.

They'd done this for a reason. They were punishing her. And not just her, but probably whoever had found her like this.

Though Maggie had a pretty good idea.

And the thought of Alex crying hysterically and clutching her dead body, was all Maggie needed to run out of the apartment again.

This meant war.


	12. Chapter 12

She had to get to Alex. That was the only thing on her mind.

If Alex had seen her dead body, or maybe even seen her die, she needed to show Alex that she was still alive before it broke her. Before Alex did anything stupid.

Maggie raced back to the DEO in record time, sprinting until she was afraid her lungs would collapse under the pressure. The list wasn't even on her mind anymore. As long as she and Alex were together, she honestly didn't care if they threatened to blow up the planet. Nothing would get in her way.

She ran into the building, and headed into the back towards a private elevator that lead to the DEO floors. She punched in the access code, and sighed in relief as the doors closed in front of her.

What could she possibly say to Alex? 'I'm sorry they cloned me but it's me now?'

Oh god, how was she going to convince Alex that she was real?!

All thoughts flew out the window the second the elevator doors opened again, and she could barely make out a streak of red and blue, before something threw her out of the elevator, making her land onto her stomach on the concrete of the DEO floor.

Maggie grunted, and raised her arms immediately. "Kara, it's me!"

Before she knew it, Kara had her pulled up again by the front of her shirt. "I'm giving you three seconds to turn back to whatever shape you _really are_."

"Kara…" Maggie tried again, realizing for the first time that she could actually _die_ at the hand of an oblivious Kara Danvers. The thought scared her beyond measure, but she tried to keep it together. "Please, let me prove it… I can't shape into anything!"

Before Kara could respond, a gun barrel was put against her head. Maggie's eyes widened as she saw who was holding it.

A very angry looking Alex, tears streaming down her face and dripping onto the floor. She seemed nearly hysterical, and Maggie understood immediately that Alex was mourning. She looked broken.

"Let her go, Kara."

Kara closed her eyes. "Alex, it's not her. We can't do this again."

It was a delicate situation. Maggie didn't want either of the two women ahead of her to hurt each other, but if she didn't watch her words, she could easily run into one of Alex's bullets, or Kara's heat vision herself.

"Alex, I know what you saw." Maggie looked her girlfriend in the eyes. "They set up something horrible, I know you saw the body. But it wasn't me. I'm still here. They had me at some sort of room, and Landon Hayes was there too, and-…"

"Stop talking!" Alex yelled at her. Maggie shut her mouth immediately, feeling helpless and useless. There was _nothing_ she could do: if those clones were anything like J'onn, they could have read her mind while she was unconscious, they could know everything about her to make them seem convincing. Everyone in the room knew it.

Alex was back to talking to Kara. "If you hurt this one too, I will _never_ forgive you."

"Alex, they're _not really her!_ " Kara tried to reason once again. "They're throwaway aliens, you saw it yourself!"

"It doesn't _fucking_ matter! They're Maggie!" Alex yelled back. "Let her go."

Kara seemed to weigh her options, before sighing and dropping Maggie to the ground once again. The detective grunted. "Alex, listen to me. They-…"

Alex threw the gun onto the ground, and covered her face with both of her hands. "I can't _do_ this, I can't…"

God _damn it_.

"If you want me to leave, I'll leave." Was the only option Maggie had left. "But I know that you want to believe it's really me, so please let me convince you."

Alex still had her eyes closed, but she carefully peeled her hands away from her face.

Kara scoffed. "You're not _actually_ considering this? Alex, they would _never_ let Maggie just walk out if they had her! They'd keep her there, you know it's true!"

Alex seemed to think about it, before nodding weakly. Maggie's stomach dropped.

"You're right."

"No, Alex! I-…" Before Maggie could continue, she felt a sharp pain in her neck. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out, making both Danvers sisters frown.

She tried to take another step into Alex's direction, before collapsing onto the ground. Oh god, _she couldn't move her legs_. They had to have injected her with something to curb her from a distance. Fuck… fuck!

Alex and Kara seemed torn between trying to help and thinking it was a trap. Truthfully, Maggie didn't blame them. If the roles had been reversed, she wouldn't have done anything either.

But her heart leapt in her chest when Alex apparently chose to take the risk, to kneel down next to her. "Talk to me. What's happening."

Maggie ignored Kara's indignant shouting behind them, as she grabbed Alex's hand weakly. "They… They injected something into my neck before they sent me here. It might be a tracker… Tell Winn to trace it, or something, I don't…" She trailed off, wincing at another jab of pain in her neck. "I think they're paralyzing me, I can't move my legs."

Alex nodded, tucking a few loose strands of Maggie's hair beneath her ear, in a gesture that was so _Alex_. Like she'd done it a thousand times before. But Maggie felt that Alex was cautious. That she didn't want to get hurt again. To have her heart broken again. She didn't want to believe that it was Maggie, and the detective understood.

Before either of them could say or do anything else, the elevator doors in front of them opened again.

Maggie's eyes widened, as she groaned.

 _They had to be fucking kidding._

A carbon copy of her, in the exact same outfit, seeming shocked at the scene in front of her.

 _Fuck_.


	13. Chapter 13

Maggie tried to get up immediately, but her efforts were in vain, as she found herself unable to move anything past her waist. The feeling of Alex letting her go immediately as if she'd been burnt stung, even though Maggie tried to rationalize it immediately.

Because after suffering the heartbreak of seeing Maggie dead, seeing two of her at the same time wouldn't exactly be a welcoming sight, had the roles been reversed. Understatement of the year.

Clone-Maggie looked up in surprise, and drew her gun. _Why did it have a gun?_

"Alex!" It yelled. "Get away from that, it's a clone!"

Both Alex and Kara seemed shocked and torn, as their gazes went from one Maggie to another, almost like watching a tennis match.

"Al…" Maggie tried, punching at her legs in frustration. Why had they paralyzed her? What good would it do?!

The clone interrupted her once again. "Alex, they want the list, you can't give it to them."

" _Babe_ …" Maggie interjected, looking up at Alex from her spot on the floor. "I didn't have a gun, remember? When we were at the docks. I didn't have a gun, I don't have it on me right now. They're paralyzing me, I don't… I'm…" She trailed off with a shaky sigh.

Though Alex's eyes softened, she didn't give in to Maggie's plea, because Kara's hand on her arm made her shake her head once again. "I can't…"

"Alex-…" The clone said again, and Maggie shot up an annoyed look. "Will you shut up for like two seconds?!"

The clone raised its gun, trained it on her form on the floor and stepped forward, but Kara went to stand in-between them quickly. "Maggie, if it's really you, don't hurt it."

" _Kara_ , she's not real!" The clone shot back. Maggie's stomach dropped, before she realized the solution.

"There's a way!" She yelled, wincing as another pain wave shot through her neck, causing her body to spasm randomly. "The aliens. The ones you brought in, the ones that are part of the cartel! Get them to talk! O-or… What about Lena's detection device? The one you told me about, Kara?!"

Another wave of pain. Apparently the aliens listening in didn't like where she was going, which only fueled her. "I'll take the test! I'm not alien, I'm human!"

"Shut up, you little-…" The clone yelled, running forward and kicking Maggie in the stomach. As she couldn't move her legs, she couldn't curl up or nurse the point of impact, so she had the wind knocked out of her. "Alex! Please!"

"Don't listen to her!" Fake Maggie looked at Alex now. "She's trying to manipulate you, she'll jump you as soon as you get close to her! It's just an act!"

Alex whispered something to Kara, who nodded and sped away, out of the DEO. Leaving Alex with two girlfriends. One with a gun trained on the other.

"Maggie, if you love me, you're going to lower that gun right now." Alex said with a shaky voice, as the real Maggie's heart broke. How could she _not realize_ that she was the real one? That she was right there, trying to talk sense into her…

"Alex." The clone looked her in the eyes with a serious glare. "I'm not taking any chances, if that alien thing jumps you, you're done for. I'm not going home without you."

Meanwhile, Maggie, on the floor, was breathing heavily. Another wave of pain made her grimace, and turn her head. Alex seemed indecisive about what to do, but it looked like she had sympathy for the woman lying in front of her.

"They want to… silence me." Maggie forced the words out. "Because they know that… I'm the real one… They're going to paralyze me, until I can't talk…"

Much to Maggie's surprise, Alex actually nodded. With that shaky, uncertain smile of hers, that made the detective's heart stop. "I know…"

"What? What are you-…"

"Alex, no…!"

Both Maggie's yelled out at the same time.

Just in time for Kara to come out of a side corridor, run full force into Maggie's upright clone, shove her away from both Maggie and Alex, and jump out of the nearest window with the clone still in her arms.

"Holy _shit_ …" Maggie gasped, having a hard time trying to control her breathing. Alex laughed weakly, as she kneeled at Maggie's side. "Did you get stung? What happened?"

"I… They took me, and-…How did you know it was me?" Maggie was more interested in hearing that, with the last deep breaths she was able to take. Alex held her hand and kissed the knuckles, and then moved in to kiss her forehead. "I planted a tracker on the clone. Winn tracked it to your apartment, and it died there. But the second you came back to the DEO, the tracker was moving around near your apartment block. So I knew that whoever came in second was the clone."

"Why… Lie?"

"I didn't want the clone to panic and shoot… We need to get you to the med bay."

Alex proceeded to put her arms underneath Maggie's knees and back, and lifted her up. "J'onn called Winn. It's an advanced species, I don't know what they injected you with, but me and Kara are going to get it out of those aliens in holding, I promise you."

Maggie moaned weakly, but the thought of Alex at least knowing that she was real made the pain almost worth it. But that still left one question unanswered. "But… H-how did you figure out that there was only one clone? T-there could be more…"

"I had Kara fly out to your apartment first, and it was empty, so the clone that played you left, just like Landon Hayes' clone left at the scene… But…" Alex sighed, as she arrived at the med bay. "… I guess I just had a feeling that it was you. Instinct."

Maggie managed a grin, as Alex put her down on one of the beds. "I love you."

Alex ran a hand through Maggie's hair. "I love you too. What can you still feel?"

"Anything above my plexus." Maggie winced again, as another pain spasm hit. "… But it hurts."

"It's going to be okay." Alex leaned down to finally capture Maggie's lips with her own. "I'm going to fix this, Mags."

"I know one thing, Danvers." Maggie mumbled, with the same dopey, dimpled grin as before. "I'm never going running with you again."

Alex laughed shakily, and nodded. "That's fair. Now, tell me everything about those aliens."

* * *

After a quick fight, fueled mostly with Kara's adrenalin and fear of the alien ever hurting anybody she loved again, she managed to overpower Maggie's clone, and fly her into the DEO holding. They had no intel whatsoever on how to destroy or kill the aliens, so she knew she had to settle on throwing it in isolation, and briefing anyone who would listen that no matter what shape it took, no matter what things it said, it wasn't to be released by anyone but Kara, Alex or J'onn.

As she walked back upstairs to the command center, she passed by the three aliens that they'd previously arrested. They were all in separate cells, but by now Kara knew that they were psychic, and therefore no walls or glass could have stopped them from talking.

A hiss from one of them made her stop in her tracks, and look at it. "What?"

"Did you see your friend yet?" Garbled, muttered English, but understandable nonetheless.

"Yes. I did." Kara grunted. "She's fine. And if that changes, I'll personally come back and beat the crap out of all three of you."

The other two aliens whooped in glee, and started slamming their hands on their glass cell walls. The gesture surprised Kara, as they seemed nothing but joyful at hearing that Maggie was fine.

"You're too late." The first alien laughed. "Your sister is already out getting the list."

"What are you talking about?" Kara stepped forward to be closer to the alien, who was grinning wildly.

"Did you really think we'd be that stupid, Girl of Steel?"

With that, it dawned on her.

And the realization felt like a punch to the gut.

 _They had been one step ahead of them this whole time._

She sprinted back, almost breaking the sound barrier in her haste to navigate through the corridors and hallways of the DEO to reach the med bay.

Just in time to see Alex holding a limp Maggie up by the neck, the detective's eyes wide with fear, but unable to move.

A scalpel in Alex's hand, poking her girlfriend in the throat threateningly.

" _Kara_ …" Maggie choked out, wincing at the pressure Alex was using.

But Kara only had eyes for her sister, who was grinning madly.

"Did you really think we wouldn't have a back-up plan?"


	14. Chapter 14

Kara was frozen. She couldn't breathe, let alone think. How had they managed to get to Alex? How had they…

"You're going to do as I say." Alex – _not Alex_ – hissed at her, while pulling Maggie a bit more up, the detective wincing in pain at the pressure on her neck.

Kara swallowed thickly, and took a careful step in the two women's direction, raising her hands. "Let's talk, okay? You and me. I'll do what you want, there's no need for her."

Kara weighed her options. She could try and hit the alien, but the risk of hitting Maggie in the process was big.

 _But_ … Another part of her rationalized instinctively. _Maggie was paralyzed. She wouldn't feel it, even if she missed._

Could she take that risk? After what she did to Alex in destroying the clone?

But… Was that even Alex to begin with?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Maggie, talking to her. The detective looked the blonde in the eyes, trying to make eye-contact. "Kara… Don't… It's bigger than me."

The mumbled words reminded Kara immediately of Alex's words when she was locked in the water tank. _Supergirl is bigger than me_.

She couldn't give up what she stood for. She couldn't negotiate with terrorists. She couldn't give them whatever they wanted, in return for Maggie. That wasn't how Supergirl worked.

But she had to figure out something before time ran out. Her mind was racing a thousand miles an hour, but she had _no_ idea how to fix it. She couldn't do anything that would unsettle the alien, because it could panic and slit Maggie's throat in a heartbeat.

"Where is Alex?" Maggie asked, a tremor in her voice.

"Too many questions, detective Sawyer."

Maggie grunted, and in a last resort to fight off the alien, she raised her elbow, nailing it in the face. Immediately, blood started dripping out of Alex's nose. It jumped backwards, dropping Maggie onto the ground.

Kara tried to get forward to help her, but the look on the alien's face made her stop in her tracks.

"I don't get it. You have the DEO…" Maggie coughed, unable to get up. "You have the director, you could launch a fucking _nuke_ at any city in the world, but you want the list of all the aliens in _one_ goddamn city?!"

"We seek no harm done to the people of planet Earth." The alien replied. "We only seek vengeance."

"What for?!"

"Do you really think you _tiny_ human are going to be able to prevent something too big for you to grasp?!"

"Well, then help me understand!" Maggie said from her spot on the floor. Kara wanted desperately to go help her, but she understood that one wrong move could trigger the alien into hostility. Maggie continued. "You say that you want vengeance. We're on the right side of the law! If somebody did you wrong we can _help_ you, instead of all this bullshit you're trying to pull!"

The alien stared at Maggie's form for a second, before morphing into its real, rough biker-looking, black-eyed form.

For a second, Kara feared that it was the end. That she'd never see her sister again, that the two of them would die at the hands of this alien.

She didn't expect the alien's defeated sigh, as it threw the scalpel to the ground.

"Agent Danvers is safe. She will not be harmed."

Kara breathed, relieved at the fact that at least the alien seemed to be speaking the truth, but still slightly on edge at how easy it all was. But the alien seemed focused on something else entirely.

"That vile human. An abomination using the cover of science to justify pain and bloodshed of our kind." The alien spat out. Kara felt how angry and aggressive the alien was, but she didn't understand it. Was he talking about Alex?!

"Alex has _never_ -…" Maggie began, but the alien interrupted her immediately. "Not Alex Danvers…Landon Hayes."

Kara and Maggie shared a scared look, before another tremor of pain rippled through Maggie, and she felt her entire body shake. The alien kneeled down in front of her, picked her up and put her down on the bed. "He paralyzed you."

"Landon?!" Kara asked, stepping forward with wide eyes. The alien looked around, diving into nearby cupboards and throwing everything around, looking for something. "He stabbed her with a knife, it was coated in something. We don't know what it is, but he must have activated it earlier. We injected nanobots into your bloodstream to delay the reaction, but his technology must have overpowered them."

Maggie's heart dropped, as she raised a hand to her neck, where she'd had the injection earlier. They had… _tried to save her_?

The alien returned with a vacutainer. "I need to take blood samples."

Maggie flinched away instinctively with whatever muscles she still controlled, but the alien sighed impatiently. "If we wanted you dead, we'd have killed you five times over by now."

"I don't trust you." Kara shook her head, still on high alert and ready to strike at any given moment. "Why should we? You were the ones that set this whole thing up. Threatened us, played mind games with us…"

The alien snapped its head up to look at Kara. "You people think us smugglers. That we transport aliens from planet to planet to sell. But we _rescue_ aliens that were targeted wrongly in their own worlds, and bring them to other planets where their existence isn't frowned upon." He grunted. "And that all went well, if it wasn't for Landon Hayes."

He took a step in Kara's direction. "That… _animal_ picked aliens off the street when they were walking home. He kidnapped babies and young ones to use for his _vile_ experiments, because he needed fresh blood, because he didn't think that anybody would _miss_ them!"

Kara's throat went dry. She had no idea how to respond. Sure, they'd heard of a few missing aliens now and then, but she figured that was some sort of branched off rogue CADMUS-like group. Not…

"He kidnapped my mate." The alien grunted. "And two others from our group. Turned them inside out, made them puppets, to dance for him. Until he got tired of them, until they no longer fulfilled their purpose as test subjects. Then he brainwashed them, to use them as his slaves."

"I'm… _so sorry_ …" Kara stuttered. The alien looked up to face her. "We got a hold of him. Overpowered him, beat him and strapped him into a car, along with what he thought was his family. He was meant to plunge himself into the river and die. But you…" He looked at Maggie. "You saved him. And in return, he tried to kill you."

For the first time that night, Maggie was truly, absolutely terrified for her life. That whatever maniac Hayes was, he'd managed to put a poison in her that was killing her slowly.

The alien sighed. "The only thing we have done to you, is kidnap you and Agent Danvers. I took her place after she watched your clone die, because I realized that Landon was trying to manipulate the DEO into giving him the list, and I didn't want to risk her falling into his trap and getting hurt."

" _Landon_ is after the list?! So… Maggie's clones…They're not you?!" Kara didn't think her eyes could get any wider.

The alien shook its head. "Whatever games Landon Hayes is playing… He wants the list to have full access to the aliens in National City for his experiments. We can _never_ let him have it."


	15. Chapter 15

The alien picked up the vacutainer, and moved back to Maggie's side. "We need to hurry, I don't know how much he knows about our plan, but there's a possibility he's accelerating the paralysis."

"Oh… _great_ …" Maggie managed to stutter, wincing as she saw the vial starting to fill with her blood.

"I'm going to see if we can get Alex back, I don't know how much progress she made."

"Progress?" Kara repeated, moving forward to hold Maggie's hand in hers and wipe away the hair from her face. The alien nodded. "While I was taking her place to prevent Landon from getting his hands on the list, I put her in the cell with him to try and see if he would explain his plan to her if she was a scientist too. You actually gave me the idea when you were talking to him about how smart she was."

Maggie smiled weakly at the memory. "Good."

"So, _none_ of those clones were you?" Kara was trying to make sense of it all in her head. If the aliens really weren't evil, and Landon Hayes _was_ … That changed everything.

"He ran as soon as you pulled him out of the car, but we caught him and brought him to our safehouse, where we brought you too. He used my mate and the two others as pawns, turning themselves in to the DEO so they could have access to the alien list and listen in to what was happening here. We have reason to believe that the other shapeshifter however…"

Kara frowned, hearing the alien pause. She watched him take the vials of blood and tuck them in his pocket. He sighed, and put a hand on Maggie's shoulder. "… From what we can tell, Landon Hayes wasn't working alone. But he seems to be speaking the truth when he says he doesn't know where his family is, so it must be above his head."

"His wife…?" Maggie stated, sounding more like a question. The alien nodded. "She's the shapeshifter. Either alien or meta-human, we don't know how advanced his research is, but she's been posing as you."

He stepped back from Maggie, and walked to the center of the med bay. "I have to go. But I'll send agent Danvers back. And I'll get one of my people to investigate your blood samples, until then I'm afraid there's not much we can do."

"Wait." Maggie grunted, before he could continue. "What's your name?"

He smiled weakly. "My name is unpronounceable to humans. But the cover name I have used on this planet has been Wolf."

"Okay, well, Wolf… Thank you. For all you have done." The detective looked him in the eyes. "We'd all be dead if it wasn't for you."

Another careful smirk. "I wouldn't celebrate too soon."

And with that, Wolf disappeared into a bright ray of light. Kara shielded her eyes, Maggie just flinched, as the rest of her body couldn't cooperate. "Well, that was… Something."

Kara whipped around. "Landon's wife is downstairs in a DEO cell. Landon himself is being held by Wolf… Doesn't that mean it's over?"

"Yeah. Unless his kids decided to join the party." Maggie grunted. "Or whatever other accomplices his wife has."

Kara's reply was cut short by another bright light, and a figure dropping down onto the ground in front of them. Kara braced herself for another fight, but lowered her fists when she saw that it was her sister.

"Alex!"

"Kara-…" Alex sighed in relief as she wrapped her arms around her. " _God_ , I'm so glad you're okay! Where's Maggie?!"

The blonde winced, and turned to face Maggie, still lying on the hospital bed. Alex followed her gaze, and her eyes widened as she raced to her girlfriend's side, and pressed her lips against hers passionately.

"I'm sorry you had to see… _me_ … like that, Al." Maggie frowned. Seeing her own mangled corpse was one traumatizing thing; yet she was sure that if she'd ever see Alex's, she'd never recover from that.

"That doesn't matter now. The important thing is that you're okay."

Maggie chuckled. "Well, I don't know about _that_ , exactly."

Alex frowned helplessly, and turned to Kara, who cleared her throat. "She's paralyzed, Alex. Below her abdomen."

The agent closed her eyes instinctively, probably to prevent tears from slipping out. Maggie reached for her hand, and gently took it in her own. "It's okay, babe. It's temporary. It's fine."

Alex seemed anything but convinced, but gently sat down next to Maggie on the bed, held her hand close in her own, and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Kara broke the silence. "What did you learn about Landon, Alex?"

"He's… Just a scared guy, Kar." Alex shrugged. "Those aliens took him, he doesn't know where his family is, whether they're still alive, he's terrified."

Maggie huffed. "He'd better be _fucking_ terrified once I get a hold of him."

Alex seemed stunned at the words. "I… What did he do?!"

"He's the one behind all this, Alex." Kara sighed. "He kidnapped those aliens and brainwashed them, he wants the DEO's alien list to have more aliens to experiment on."

"He told me he only experimented on himself." Alex shook her head. "They must be lying to you."

"I promise you, Alex, they're not lying to us. Landon Hayes is dangerous. He's a psychopath that used innocent aliens for his experiments, and now he wants more."

"Listen." Alex stepped forward, to face her sister. "I know I'm not exactly an expert on human body language, but the guy was scared out of his mind. He told me all about his research, he's a _doctor_ for crying out loud, Kara."

"If he really wanted to help people he wouldn't have fucking _paralyzed_ me for trying to save his life." Maggie mumbled from the bed.

"Because he didn't paralyze you! Those aliens did, remember?! That's what this was all about! They want to take over the planet, you heard what J'onn said!"

"I don't know what J'onn heard or saw, but the alien that took your place told us everything he knew, and I believe him." Kara crossed her arms. That comment made Alex's eyes widen. "Took my place? What are you talking about?!"

"He posed as you so that Landon couldn't try to brainwash you into getting the list for him." Kara supplied.

The agent pinched the bridge of her nose. "Guys… I'm…" She sighed. "Landon isn't a bad guy. I just _know_ , okay? My gut feeling tells me he's okay, and it's rarely wrong."

Kara grunted. She knew how accurate her sister's gut feeling was most of the time. But they _had_ to believe Wolf. He was telling the truth. Landon was hurting aliens, and that was _never_ okay in her book.

She had to do _something._

"I'm going to go talk to Landon's wife." Kara said, before walking out of the room. Maggie watched her go, and sighed. Alex noticed her discomfort, and moved closer to her again. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm _not_ feeling, Al, that's the problem." It didn't come out like a joke, and Maggie hadn't intended to laugh about it. She was terrified. "Just… Stay with me. Please."

"Of course." Alex nodded, moving forward to lay down on the bed herself, and wrapping her arms around Maggie, kissing the side of her head. "Always."


	16. Chapter 16

Kara took big strides, her chest puffed out, as she made her way down to the cells of the DEO.

Passing a group of unrelated prisoners that shouted and whistled after her, she only hesitated when she arrived at the cells that held the three biker-like aliens. If Wolf really had been right, they were manipulated, and innocent.

"Girl of Steel!" One of them yelled after her. Kara stopped, and turned over to see the only female of the group, standing up in her cell and looking at her. "Please!"

Kara knew she couldn't afford to waste a lot of time, but she humored the alien anyway, moving closer to their cell. "What?"

"It's him, isn't it?" The alien whispered. "The man we'd been tracking? He's killing our kind, experimenting on us… _controlling us_."

Kara didn't have a response. She settled on looking away, and nodding slightly. The alien slumped back against the thick glass holding her, whispering in a language Kara didn't know or understand.

"It is the end." She heard one of the other two aliens behind her say, lowering his head.

"No, it's not." Kara frowned. "Wolf is helping us, _we_ are going to help you, we're going to take them down and get you out of here, to go back to your planet."

After that, Kara felt more ready than ever to punch some sense into Hayes' wife. If she really was the mastermind behind it, if she'd really taken over her husband's job of playing mind games and luring innocent aliens into her trap…

She made her way over to a cell on the far end of the corner, where nobody could hear them talk.

Oddly enough, Kara saw that the woman was still in Maggie's body. She didn't look up, but the blonde knew that she'd heard her coming.

"Jessica Hayes." She crossed her arms, staying put in front of the glass. "What, you can't change back into yourself now?"

The woman – Jessica – looked up lazily. "My energy is depleted."

"Well, isn't that convenient." Kara raised an eyebrow. It felt weird talking to Maggie, but knowing that it wasn't her. Jessica sighed. "I don't know how it works. I don't know how to change back, he never told me."

"Oh, so Landon was the one that told you to do all of it? Yes, of course, it was his plan all along to get captured and for you to continue doing his work in killing innocent aliens and cutting them into pieces until they're no longer interesting?!" Kara shoved her palms against the glass in frustration. "Answer me!"

"Yes." Jessica didn't make eye contact. "H-He told me they'd hurt Parker and Charlotte – my children. I don't know where they took them. He just told me to get the list, that… That those aliens would be on that list, so I'd know where they took them…" Tears slipped down her cheeks. Kara closed her eyes, wincing. Truth be told, with all the _sob stories_ , she didn't even know who to believe anymore. _Everything_ seemed plausible at this point.

Landon kidnapped those aliens to experiment on, those aliens kidnapped him back… His wife needed to get the list because those aliens apparently kidnapped their children as well…

Wolf _had_ mentioned their family being clones, so they must've had contact with the children in order to clone them. She made a mental note to check the morgues if the clones had disappeared or if the bodies were still there.

"You didn't have to let me kill you in Maggie's apartment. You didn't have to play those mind games, if you're really as innocent as you say, why would you _do_ that?!"

A shaky sigh from the woman made Kara look back up to her face, where she saw to her horror that her nose had started bleeding. Jessica dabbed at her face with Maggie's slender fingers, as they came back red. "H-He said I couldn't stay in her body for too long, my DNA would get unstable, or something… I'm just an accountant, he did all the science work, I don't know how to fix it…"

Kara involuntarily stepped back, cursing weakly in kryptonese. If Jessica Hayes died, that meant that things would get a whole lot more complicated.

Deciding to humor her and give her one chance, Kara pressed her hands against the flat surface of the glass again. "If you're telling the truth, if all you _really_ want is your children back… Then tell me everything I need to know to rescue them."

"You can't tell Alex or Maggie!" Jessica whispered pleadingly. "Please… They'll kill me as soon as they see me, I can't change back! I'll tell you everything, just _please_ help them!"

"Okay." Kara pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, fine. I'll help you."

Jessica sighed in relief, slipping down the cell walls again. "Those aliens, Landon told me they live near the power plant. That's probably where they're holding him. They'll be holding Parker and Charlie there too, _please Kara_ …"

It was the first time the woman had used her name, and unconsciously, it struck a chord within her.

She could just go look, right? Wolf was friendly to them, so if those two children really were hostages, she'd know that Jessica was telling the truth.

She wasn't siding with Landon Hayes just yet – but if she could bring those two kids back home to their mother, then maybe all the cloning madness could stop, and she could focus on the actual problem.

Getting ready to take off, she threw her head around for one last question.

"Do you know something about a paralyzer? Something he was working on?"

To the blonde's relief, the woman actually nodded quickly. "Yeah, I read some notes he wrote on it. Uh… Something about a neurological toxin against aliens, trapped in nano-capsules and injected into the body."

 _But Maggie isn't an alien…_

"It's highly lethal. But it's not… He mentioned something about him being able to control it, to control how fast it works, so he could choose for it to kill quickly, or let the victim suffer. For hours, if necessary."

"Do you have an antidote? Or any idea where there could be one?" Kara's heart was beating. If Landon really controlled the toxin, that meant that he could kill Maggie any second.

 _She was his failsafe._ If he couldn't get out of the situation, he'd kill Maggie anyway.

"There could be one in our house, in his lab downstairs. We live just outside of the city, 33 Goldfield road."

Kara nodded. She had to work fast. With a last, weak yet grateful smile, she ran back towards her balcony, and took off into the sky.

* * *

A weak groan made Alex look up from her microscope. She'd quickly moved some of her lab equipment into the med bay so that she didn't have to be away from Maggie at any time. She'd taken some more of Maggie's blood, glad that the detective was getting some rest, and was analyzing it.

"Hey." Alex rolled her chair backwards, and walked over to Maggie's side, kissing her forehead. "How are you doing?"

" _Same_." Maggie croaked, sighing deeply. "Any luck?"

"Nothing yet. But we'll get something soon, alright? You just rest."

Maggie nodded, staring at the ceiling, as Alex laced their fingers together. "I just… You were right. I dove into the water without thinking. I should have waited, I should have listened to you."

"Hey, no, no…" Alex shook her head, kissing the back of her lover's hand and smiling weakly. "…What you did was so brave. You didn't hesitate to save them, even when they almost ran you over, that's… I admire you for that. You were just a the wrong place at the wrong time, baby."

"W-what if it's permanent?" Maggie whispered through her teeth, trying desperately to keep her tears at bay. She didn't want to cry, she didn't want to show Alex how scared she was, even though she knew that the agent felt the same way. "What if this never changes? What if I'll never be able to use my legs again?! _Fuck_ , Alex, I wanted to give you so much more… I… I'm sorry…" She closed her eyes, now finally feeling the wetness make its way to her cheeks.

Alex moved forward, gently wiping the tears away, and resting her forehead against the detective's. "Mags… Baby, listen to me."

Maggie slowly opened her eyes again, and blinked to see through the tears, Alex's worried yet _so loving_ face coming into focus. "Marry me."

"W-what?" Maggie frowned. She must've misheard Alex. Surely, the agent – so fierce and strong – would never want her when she couldn't move anything above her stomach. Alex needed somebody to take care of her. To hold her when she needed it, and to have her back in the field, she couldn't give her either of those if she couldn't move…

"Mags, you're the most gorgeous person I've ever met – inside and out. You're so kind, and just, and smart, and _beautiful_ … I actually wanted to ask you this weekend. But… _fuck it_. In our line of work, we'll never know what the future brings. We could die tomorrow, the both of us, and… I want us to be together. Forever. I want to spend the rest of my life knowing that I'm coming home to you. That you're coming home to me. So please… Marry me."

Maggie's tears were thicker now, dripping down onto the bed underneath her as she cried. "Y-Yes… Yes…"

Alex laughed through her own tears, kissing Maggie on the lips as she held her, and whispered softly in her ear. "I'm going to fix this, Maggie. This isn't permanent, we're going to get you up again in no time."

"I love you."

Alex smiled weakly. "I love you too."


End file.
